About the Board of Directors

John Ferguson

Executive Chairman

John originates from London and grew up playing football and cricket. In 1988 John was the victim of a knife attack and decided to skip University and begin working life. He joined Pearl Assurance, spending nearly a decade there before moving into the broker sector. John spent the following 10 years covering all aspects of the finance sector including management of Broker Funds, Capital Markets, Asset & Structured Finance, Corporate Structure, Debt Finance, and Compliance. In 2002 John became Operations Director for a pan European brokerage through which he developed his knowledge of the offshore market. John emigrated in 2006 to live in Prague, Czech Republic, where he established his first business, and since then, in partnership with Charlie Goldsmith, John has grown the Group to offer Capital Markets, regulated UCITS Funds, Corporate Bonds, Securitisation, Distribution, and Corporate Finance services. In 2016 John founded a UK registered Children's Charity, The Lillywhite Foundation, that funds projects for children and young people, in difficult social or financial circumstances, enabling them to participate in sports and team activity. A UAE branch of the group of businesses was formalised in 2020 and John splits his time today between Prague and the UAE. A member of the Institute of Directors, a former member of the Institute of Compliance, and the Chartered Insurance Institute, John has been a directly regulated 'Responsible Person' in several EU states, including the UK, has spoken at numerous financial conferences and provides mentoring and business guidance to firms.

Howard Chapman

General Counsel & Executive Director

Howard graduated from university with a first class with honours law degree in 1996. Howard went on to qualify as a Solicitor in England & Wales in 2000, and further qualify as a European Advocate in 2008. Howard gained his formidable legal experience with Hogan Lovells, having spells in London, Frankfurt, and Prague — the latter being where he settled both to live and to establish his own private law practice. Howard has an extensive legal background and great experience in Private Equity, Corporate Finance, and cross border M&A. After establishing his private practice in 2012, Howard specialised in advising on innovative and ground-breaking international corporate and private matters for expatriate individuals and businesses. Howard has lectured in law at Anglo-American University, Prague, is a Board member of the Prague ased International Business Forum, and a Trustee of a UK Children's Charity. Howard joined John & Charlie in November 2017 as General Counsel and Executive Director for Audacia Capital, overseeing all legal aspects and requirements of the plc, working closely with local legal advisers in Dublin, and advising the Executive Board on company matters.

Patrick Gibbons

Independent Non-Executive Director

Qualifying as a solicitor in 1996, Patrick has spent over two decades in the financial services industry. He has specialised in legal and regulatory compliance, corporate governance and risk management in senior management roles at a number of household name regulated financial services firms, including Allianz, New Ireland, Scottish Provident, and Royal Liver. Since 2011, Patrick has served on the Board and the Audit & Risk committee of Handelsbanken. Patrick's current directorships include Board Chair of Wealth Options Limited, two Irish State Boards, and a cross-border body on the island of Ireland. The common theme of Patrick's career is helping the Boards he serves in governance, compliance and risk management while simultaneously seeking to steer their strategic direction towards progressive growth.

Matthew Tracey

Independent Non-Executive Director

Matthew Tracey is an Associate Director within the Structured Finance division at Waystone Governance based in Dublin. Matthew is highly experienced in structured finance and capital markets. Prior to joining Waystone Governance, Matthew spent three years with Bank of New York Mellon Corporate Trust department, responsible for all aspects of transactions executed from the Dublin office, including the management of portfolios of structured finance products including CLOs, CDOs, ABS/MBS, repos, asset finance, commercial paper, structured notes and SPVs. Matthew holds a Master's degree in Finance from UCD Michael Smurfit Business School and a Bachelor's degree in Finance from University College Cork.

Jamie Prins

Non-Executive Director

Jamie Prins is the current Managing Director for Trustmoore Ireland having worked for the Trustmoore Group since 2019. Jamie is highly experienced in transaction management and regulatory matters within the Structured Debt and Capital Markets space. Jamie holds a Company Law degree from the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, is a certified Trust Officer, and has professional qualifications relating to his knowledge of EMIR, MiFID II and Solvency II. Jamie adds immense MTN programme and Structured Debt experience to the Audacia Board having held senior roles at TMF Management (Ireland) Ltd in Dublin and within the Structured Finance Department of TMF Netherlands, and has acted in a Director capacity for many S110 note issuance SPVs.