The Founders

John Baskott,
Co-Founder
John has had a 20 year career in B2B media, specialising in financial conferences. He has had a consistent track record in driving sales growth in a range of market-leading brands and he co-founded a successful media start-up that was sold to Euromoney (part of the Daily Mail Group).
John started his career at IIR (now Informa), the world's largest conference producer, before leaving to head the sales team at Risk Conferences. In 2001, John co-founded Capacity Media, that was eventually sold to Euromoney and today remains one of the latter’s most profitable divisions.
Before starting 1LoD John ran Euromoney’s Capital Markets conferences.

Paul Hodge,
Co-Founder
Paul has over 20 years’ experience in financial services working in the markets and banking divisions of tier one banks including Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs.
In 2006, Paul was appointed as chief operating officer of a $30bn fund with global responsibility for Operations, Risk and Technology before joining IHS Markit as a managing director.
Prior to starting 1LoD, Paul was the EMEA head of 1st line supervision for Barclays Investment Bank.
The Team

Jess Jones,
Director, Head of Content
Jess is committed to generating business-critical events that provide value and key insights for commercial success. She has created international events and led innovative teams at Informa, Energy Intelligence, Risk and The Telegraph.
Now, more than ever, face-to-face interaction is a valuable and increasingly rare commodity. In an era of rapid innovation and unprecedented challenges, sharing inspiration and best practice is essential for progressive organisations and ambitious professionals. Not just for commercial success, but to create a sustainable and forward-focused strategy and culture.

Andrew Lennon,
Director, Head of Business Development
Andrew has over 16 years’ experience in business development, most recently as head of sales and director, capital markets at Euromoney. In his ten years at Euromoney he originated and launched financial conferences in Europe, North America and Asia. Andrew has moderated panels on a wide range of FICC topics and has interviewed government ministers, central bankers and leading figures from the financial markets.
Despite hailing from Sydney, Andrew has lived in London since 2005.

Layla Baskott,
Chief Operating Officer
Layla has been in events for 20 years. Starting at RISK Publications before moving on to join the logistics team at the Liberal Democrat Party. She then joined Euromoney Conferences where she enjoyed a long and varied career as Head of Operations, managing different teams and businesses with a varied portfolio including capital markets dinners and events as well as EMEA conferences and a diverse event portfolio within the Hedge Fund world.

Daniela Kaltenbach,
Marketing Director
Daniela has been working in events for over 17 years. During this time, she has marketed several different events formats ranging from large scale exhibitions, conferences, webinars, roundtables to awards across a variety of industries and on an international basis. She has also extensive experience in launching new events and formats. Daniela is a firm advocate that marketing needs to be benefit driven and add value to customers by providing insightful content and experiences.

Dane Barnard,
Director, Head of Financial Institutions
Dane is a Director and is the Head of Financial Institutions who joined 1LoD in 2018. Prior to 1loD he spent 10 years in financial services recruitment, specialising in risk and control functions across the sell side, buy side and consultancies.
He has continually driven revenue growth across new and existing accounts, as well as managing large teams. Internally he sat on the senior management team and externally, he was an account director with overall responsibility for several major accounts, including Barclays, Morgan Stanley and Janus Henderson Investors.

Lucy Snowden,
Head of Production

Simon Brady,
Editor

David Lamb,
Head of Technology
David spent the last five years before joining 1LoD in November 2017 as a digital marketing executive at Euromoney in the conference division, eventually becoming Head of Digital and managing the conferences division’s production work, innovation and technology.
While at Royal Holloway University, David successfully launched and established Insanity Radio as the UK’s first fully student-run station on community FM.

Shaun Mackenzie,
Senior Account Manager
Shaun is a results-driven sales professional having joined 1LoD in 2018. As a Senior Account Manager, Shaun is skilled at developing the right action plan for each of his client’s unique needs and is committed to helping them choose the best products and route to market. Throughout his career, Shaun has earned the trust of several national and international companies and maintained strong client relationships that generate repeat business. He attributes his success to his ability to listen to customers and put their needs first.
Outside of work, Shaun enjoys golfing, fishing, being outdoors and visiting his family in Zimbabwe.

Alison McCarthy,
Finance Director
I am a chartered accountant with 30 years’ experience working with media and entertainment companies.

Harry Batstone,
Senior Conference Producer
Harry is in his second year of conference producing. Having joined 1LoD as a graduate, Harry is looking to establish a career in producing within a B2B Media Company.
Before joining 1LoD as a Conference Producer Harry graduated from Newcastle University with a first-class degree in History.
In his pastime, Harry is an avid rugby player and is looking to continue playing now he is back from university.

Abi Stanton,
Operations Manager
Abi joined 1LoD in 2021, looking to establish a career in event operations. Abi works on all elements of operations within 1LoD, with a key focus on working closely with all of our sponsors.
Previous to joining 1LoD Abi worked at an event venue assisting the coordination of corporate conferences and private events.
Abi is passionate about providing high quality events, and is excited to continue her career in event operations.

Jamie King,
Account Manager
Jamie joined 1LoD in early 2022 as an Account Manager. Prior to this, he spent 10 years in the Health, Fitness and Education sectors.
As a former Business Owner with a multi-faceted background, he is familiar with building and maintaining client relationships and is no stranger to challenge and change.
Excited to bring his skills and experiences to the team at 1LoD, Jamie is proud to be surrounded by a dedicated team of professionals.

Krupa Dave,
Account Executive
Krupa has recently joined 1LoD as an Account Executive and is looking to develop her passion for Sales. Her role within 1LoD will be to maintain excellent relationships with our clients alongside securing new business and gain more product knowledge.
Prior to joining 1LoD Krupa graduated from the University College London with a master’s in international security and has a background of defence whilst working in the Foreign Office.
Krupa is passionate about working in a different sector striving to gain financial knowledge and develop interpersonal skills to ensure clients are managed and delivered the best experience.

Jack West,
Account Manager
Jack is in his first year of Business Development at 1LoD. Jack joined 1LoD as recent graduate and is looking to establish a career in business development.
Previous to joining 1LoD Jack graduated from the University of Birmingham with a degree in International Relations and Economics.

Jack Peel,
Account Executive
Jack joined 1LoD in 2022 and is in his first year as an Account Executive. His role within 1LoD will be to maintain excellent relationships with our clients alongside securing new business.
Jack is an ambitious, driven individual that enjoys working within a team environment that strives for the very best. Jack comes from a sporting background and will look to bring his transferable skills into the 1LoD environment & is looking to establish his career in the sales market.

Georgina Banham,
Production Assistant
Georgina has joined the production team as Production assistant after most recently graduating from Queen Mary, University of London with a Masters degree in Public Policy. Georgina is looking to establish her career in events.
Outside of work, she is a keen political writer in her free time, writing on subject matter involving the wider political economy from a historical and international perspective.

Radek Piekarski,
Marketing Executive
Radek is in his first year as a Marketing Executive. He joined straight after his graduation from Newcastle University, where he obtained BSc in Marketing and Management.
Before starting at 1LoD, Radek worked on various marketing campaigns for IBM, Groundwork and as a Brand Manager for WhitePress. His experience with events varies from the online conferences during pandemics to in-person commercial events.
Radek is passionate about improving our lives with new technologies. In 2017, he created an app to help individuals with Parkinson's disease.

Katie Sellar,
Events Executive
Katie has recently joined 1LoD as an Events Administrator and is looking to develop her passion for Operations. Prior to joining 1LoD, Katie was an Environment and Sustainability Resourcing Partner for Principal People specialising in the recruitment of Environment, Sustainability, CSR and ESG candidates.
Katie is passionate about working in a sector striving to make the world more sustainable and is now looking to combine her passion in a career to provide the highest quality events and information to non-financial risk and control practitioners.
Senior Advisors

Mark Carawan,
Former Group Chief Compliance Officer, Citigroup
Mark is currently a Senior Fellow at the New York University School of Law Program for Corporate Compliance and Enforcement (PCCE). Most recently, from 2017 to 2020, Mark served as Citigroup’s Chief Compliance Officer with responsibilities spanning Citi’s financial crime, regulatory compliance, conduct, and ethics programs. Mark was previously the Chief Internal Auditor for Citigroup from 2011 to 2017, and prior to that, the Barclays Group’s Chief Internal Auditor from 2003 to 2011. Mark’s earlier consulting career included roles such as Managing Partner responsible for Enterprise-Wide Assurance to wholesale financial services institutions at Deloitte (UK), and Managing Partner for Andersen’s global Privatisation and Emerging Markets practice, overseeing mandates and consulting activities in over fifty non-OECD countries.

Piers Bearne,
Founder & CEO, Collingwood Advisory
Piers Bearne is an entrepreneur and investor who has built and sold his own media businesses, and who has worked on M&A for major buyers, both as CEO and consultant.
Piers sold his first exhibition business, Rock Media, to Imago Group in 2006. As CEO of Clarion Conferences, he was involved in the sale of Clarion to VSS in 2008. More recently, he sold Tank World Expo to ArtexisEasyfairs, led the sale of TowerXchange to Euromoney and sold SmartRail World to DVV Media International.
As Chairman and shareholder with GFC Media Group, Global Transport Forum, Bio-Based World and World Retail Insights, he works on strategy, resourcing, sales maximisation and value creation in conferences, exhibitions, digital communities and intelligence reports, and co-hosts London’s Media Entrepreneur Meetups.
Piers previously worked on off-market acquisitions for Clarion Events, ITE Group plc and i2i Events Group (now Ascential plc). He has presented target acquisitions to CEOs and Boards, and understands the value drivers and risks from a buyer’s point of view. Through Bio-Based World, he led the acquisition of World Bio Markets from GreenPower Conferences.
