Nick is Chief Innovation Officer at AIR. AIR is a global non-profit leveraging digital modernisation to help build a financial system that serves everyone and produces widespread financial health. Nick contributes to the strategic design, formulation and execution of AIR’s programmes in the United States and globally. Nick helps develop AIR’s relationships with financial regulatory institutions globally and specifically in emerging markets, and develops innovation strategies and programs in conjunction with AIR’s funders, partners and collaborators.

Nick was previously the Director of the UK Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) Innovation Division, including the agency’s RegTech and TechSprint initiatives, its data and analytics strategy, machine learning endeavours, and the “Innovate” program (encompassing the Regulatory Sandbox, innovation and digital policy, and industry-facing direct support services). In 2016, Nick was responsible for creating and developing the TechSprint as a new methodology for regulatory innovation and public/private collaboration, designing a model that is now widely emulated around the world. He has led TechSprints on challenges ranging from financial crime and regulatory reporting to financial access and inclusion, women’s economic empowerment, pensions, and money and mental health.

Prior to his innovation-focused roles, he investigated regulatory breaches in his time in the Enforcement Division of the FSA and conducted civil, criminal, and regulatory investigations of fraud, misconduct and other matters for private clients at KPMG.

Nick is also the founding Director of Sandbox Consulting Ltd, a UK-based boutique consulting firm providing strategic advisory services in innovation, transformation and regulation in the financial services and public sectors in the UK and globally