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 Management 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 is responsible for revenue at 1LoD and has been with the business since its humble beginnings. With 17 years business development experience, he has specialised in delivering revenue growth in new markets and on launch products. Prior to 1LoD Andrew was head of sales and director, capital markets at Euromoney. In his ten years at Euromoney he originated and launched capital markets conferences and investor roadshows in Europe, North America and Asia.

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.

Alison McCarthy,
Finance Director
Alison McCarthy ACA is a finance director with many years’ experience helping companies in the media, entertainment and events sectors build viable commercial businesses. Over the years, her roles have included the financial leadership of businesses ranging from start-ups to listed companies, operational leadership roles in television and post production, and work within accountancy practice where she specialised in the UK creative industries tax credit.
She works closely with a number of investment funds and M&A advisory firms, assisting their investee companies and clients.
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.

Dr Roger Noon,
Senior Moderator
