Apex Group and Global Custodian present: Financial Markets Book of the Year 2026

Adi founded Divino Global Holdings in 2023 to invest across private credit, real estate, venture and equity. He previously built institutional private market platforms at pension, insurance, and wealth management firms. Through co-investment partnerships, he gives family offices and institutions access to capacity-constrained opportunities.

Anthony has over 30 years of experience in financial services and provided EMEIA regulatory advisory network expertise within the financial services risk management division of EY. He headed up Regulatory Reform for Capital Markets and Asset Management, and Regulatory Intelligence (incl. focusing on DLT – Secretariat PTDL Group – now GBBC). Anthony joined EY after spending significant time within the capital markets and asset management industry where he held numerous senior/executive level roles in trading, operations, and risk management at Accenture, Deutsche Börse, Merrill Lynch, SWIFT (Head of Securities/Treasury), Instinet, and Reuters/Chicago Mercantile Exchange. He was a member of the FSA Market Advisory Committee. As of 2025, he sat on the boards of PRMIA, ISITC-Europe Advisory Board and was a Member of the City of London International Regulatory Experts Group (IRSG); he founded the Reference Data User Group in 2002 and MiFID JWG/Best Execution and Trading WG from 2005-15. He also co-chaired the FIX Brexit WG until Q1, 2020.

Ardal founded Loh-Gronager Partners as an Investment Partnership in 2021. He is the Managing Partner, responsible for all investment decisions and runs its Global Fund. Ardal is also the author of the book: The Perceptive Investor. Ardal is half Danish, born in the United Kingdom, and was educated across Europe, Asia and Australia, giving him unique exposure to different peoples, cultures, and values from a formative age. He has always been entrepreneurial and business-minded having established and run several successful ventures. He attended Durham University in the UK, receiving the Queens Campus Scholarship and graduating with a BA (Hons) in Accounting and Finance. Ardal has over 15 years’ financial industry experience with both buy-side and sell-side expertise. His career in finance began with internships in sales and trading at Goldman Sachs and Swiss Re Asset Management. He subsequently joined Morgan Stanley as an interest rates trader, followed by Credit Suisse as a credit trader, before departing to manage an investment portfolio for himself and a small group of family and friends. Ardal decided to formalise the Partnership by forming Loh-Gronager Partners after several successful years, at the request of his investors and to manage external capital in the spirit of the original Buffett Partnerships.

Fabian is a globally recognised expert in B2B payments capital markets infrastructure and fintech innovation, with over 30 years of leadership across strategy, product, and go-to-market roles in Europe and the Middle East. He has held senior executive and consulting positions at leading institutions including SWIFT, Euroclear, Capco, Abu Dhabi Global Market, and Motive Partners, and recently served as Chief Product Officer at NowCM and Strategy Advisor to Greenomy. Fabian is known for bridging traditional financial institutions with emerging fintech ecosystems. He has scaled industry-leading innovation platforms, built multi-stakeholder ecosystems across continents, and advised on ESG reporting, digital assets, and financial market infrastructure modernisation. A seasoned board advisor and public-private convenor, his governance and advisory experience spans regulators, fintechs, and global institutions.

Gaurav is Chairman of Dalmia Group Holdings, with investments across private equity, real estate, public markets, and structured debt. He is an early investor in, and Board member of, True North, a leading Indian private equity firm, and serves on several international advisory and non-profit boards focused on economics, policy, entrepreneurship, and education.

Jaspreet brings over two decades of experience at the nexus of global financial services, capital markets, and technology, with a deep specialisation in transforming innovation into high-performing investment strategies. She has led multi-asset portfolios across private equity, private credit, and strategic technology investments, with a sharp focus on long-term value creation and transformative growth. Throughout her career, Jaspreet has held senior leadership roles at some of the world’s most respected financial institutions, including SunGard (FIS), Broadridge, Corvil, ICAP, and DTCC, where she played a pivotal role in shaping the evolution of capital markets infrastructure and financial technology. Her leadership has been instrumental in driving complex initiatives involving securities processing, post-trade modernisation, market data optimization, and regulatory innovation. Jaspreet’s investment acumen is rooted in her ability to build and scale global portfolios, structure sophisticated transactions, and identify asymmetric opportunities across diverse asset classes. She is known for navigating dynamic regulatory environments, scaling fintech and infrastructure platforms, and forging strategic cross-border partnerships that deliver sustained capital growth. She holds a BSc, BMC, and MBA, and is an alumna of Durham Business School and Harvard Business School.

Richard is co-founder of The Trade and Tungsten Publishing. He retired at the end of 2023 from his role as special projects editor and head of research at Global Custodian. Richard has written extensively about global financial services for numerous publications over the past 40 years. He has a PhD in International Relations from the London School of Economics.

Sameera’s career has spanned three decades across three financial hubs: Mumbai, Hong Kong, and Dubai. She has worked in Dubai since 2012 and is currently Senior Director at Singapore-headquartered Charles Monat (monat.com) in its branch in the region’s premier financial free zone, The Dubai International Financial Centre (“DIFC”). In this role she works with ultra-high-net-worth individuals on their wealth planning needs. Sameera previously worked in Dubai with Man Group (man.com), a diversified quantitative investment manager listed on the London Stock Exchange and also did a stint with the DIFC Authority. Sameera moved to Dubai from Hong Kong where she worked between 2004 and 2012 as deputy editor of the region’s leading trade finance publication, FinanceAsia magazine and website, financeasia.com, owned by London-headquartered Haymarket Media. Sameera started her career in 1991 with ICICI group, India’s largest private sector bank, in its investment banking division. During her stint there Sameera worked at ICICI Securities which was a joint venture between ICICI and JPMorgan. Sameera is a voracious reader. She enjoys many genres of books and at FinanceAsia reviewed non-fiction books for the magazine. Sameera graduated with an MBA from India’s leading business school, the Indian Institute of Management at Ahmedabad (IIMA) in 1991.

Virginie is a capital markets fintech research specialist, with more than two decades of experience in tracking financial technology developments in the sector, with a particular focus on regulatory developments, data, and standards. She is the founder of Firebrand Research, a research and advisory firm focused on providing capital markets technology and operations insights for the digital age. Firebrand works with capital markets participants of all kinds to benchmark digital maturity across functionally-specific areas and highlights common challenges and best practices within peer groups on the buy-side, sell-side, financial market infrastructures, and intermediaries. Most recently, she was a research director with Aite Group, heading up the Institutional Securities and Investments practice and covering data management, collateral management, legal entity onboarding, and post-trade technology. In this role she spearheaded strategy for the practice and managed a team of analysts across the globe. Virginie has spoken at leading industry conferences, is actively engaged in a number of post-trade industry standards groups, and holds a Master’s degree in English Literature from the University of Edinburgh.