CEO Today United Kingdom Awards

61 www.ceotodaymagazine.com CEO Today United Kingdom Awards 2018 FINANCIAL SERVICES SIMON LEWIS Chief Executive of AFME FIRM PROFILE AFME is the trade body which represents the pan-European capital markets industry, including the leading global and European banks. AFME advocates for deep and integrated European capital markets which serve the needs of companies and investors, supporting economic growth and benefitting society. Its Board comprises the leading European investment banking groups. AFME focuses on a wide range of market, business and prudential issues and offers a pan-European perspective, bringing to bear deep policy and technical expertise and constructive influence with European and global policymakers. AFME has offices in London, Brussels and Frankfurt, which are instrumental to the organisation’s advocacy work, building relationships with European regulators and policymakers and making sure the industry’s voice is heard. This year, AFME will also be looking to upweight its presence in both Frankfurt and Paris. AFME’s work on Brexit The uncertainty created by the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union has provoked particularly challenging questions around the ability of banks to continue to service their clients. AFME’s focus during this time has been fact-based engagement with policymakers across the EU27 and in the UK, to make the case for how important it is that Europe’s market eco-system continues to function efficiently and effectively. AFME’s work on promoting economic growth AFME has done a significant amount of work over recent years to analyse how European economic growth can be supported by developing deeper capital markets and increasing funding for SMEs and corporates. As part of this important work, AFME has produced a series of growth reports, including Bridging the Growth Gap, which have assessed how SMEs and corporates can gain greater access to financing, helping them to invest and grow. In September 2018, AFME published the first report tracking the performance of the European Commission’s flagship Capital Markets Union (CMU) plan against key economic performance indicators to determine how well some of its policies to boost capital and investment flows in Europe are working. ABOUT SIMON LEWIS Simon Lewis was appointed the first Chief Executive of the Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME) in October 2010. Previously Simon was Director of Communications and the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman at 10 Downing Street. He has held a number of senior corporate roles including Director of Corporate Affairs at Vodafone, Centrica and NatWest. Simon was appointed as the first Communications Secretary to The Queen in 1998. Simon has a degree from Oxford University in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. He also holds an M.A. in Political Science from the University of California at Berkeley as a Fulbright scholar. Simon was appointed an OBE in the 2014 New Year Honours List for public service and services to international education through the Fulbright Commission.