Our experts

Lyndsey is Head of Training and Consultancy at the Trust, with a background in professional development, change management and relationship management. This includes experience in the data centre industry, a government IT and change environment and front-line experience in the busiest British Consular Network in the world. Prior to her time in the Trust, Lyndsey was Head of Quality Assurance and Training Delivery at DCProfessional Development, a global data center and IT training provider.

Chris Fitch is the Trust’s Vulnerability Lead, and a Research Fellow at Bristol University’s Personal Finance Research Centre. Over the last 13 years, Chris has run a programme of research on vulnerability, financial difficulty, and financial services. This has involved research underpinning the design of the Debt and Mental Health Evidence Form, as well as the first ever UK study of the experience of frontline creditor staff when working with customers in vulnerable situations. In 2016, Chris was named in Credit Today’s top 100 list of influential people working in the creditor sector for the second time.

Colin Trend has a wealth of experience in the finance and debt sector; from private, public and voluntary sector roles. He has tutored with the Money Advice Trust since 2007 and works directly with many other firms. Colin is the lead tutor with the Money Advice Trust on their vulnerability programme, assisting both in the UK and overseas. In addition to the publications above, with Chris Fitch, he co-authored the Trust’s vulnerability guidance for advice agencies, launched by the charity with the backing of a range of organisations across the advice sector in June 2016.

As a pioneer of accessible and inclusive customer service, Caroline has worked with people in and around financial services for over 25 years.

Along the way, Caroline has led teams to win coveted awards, including Public Service Organisation of the Year, Top 100 Index, Leaders in Diversity, and was shortlisted for the National Centre for Diversity’s Most Inspirational Individual Award in 2017. Having also played a significant role at the Financial Ombudsman Service in customer experience and outreach work, Caroline Wells is now applying her customer service and complaints handling expertise as a member of the Trust’s training and consultancy team.

As an independent advisor, Caroline has influenced positive change that optimises the needs of disabled people and vulnerable customers. And recognised across the industry as a progressive customer insight and finance professional, she has championed the customer voice – both in terms of access to services and customer experience.

With insight gained on the front line from roles as diverse as collections, underwriting and as a specialist money adviser for people affected by mental illness, Michael Ramone has developed a broad understanding of supporting vulnerable consumers and hard to reach groups.

Michael joined the advice sector over a decade ago and has worked with the Money Advice Trust and other high-profile charities. He has taken on diverse specialist roles which encompass client experience, advice, service design and delivery, innovation and learning, bringing about tangible change for people in vulnerable situations.

As an independent trainer and consultant specialising in vulnerability, Michael has worked across sectors including finance, utilities, regulators and ombudsman organisations. Michael delivers a wealth of knowledge and insight via a pragmatic and focused approach, supporting meaningful change across complex systems and structures, expertly balancing organisation goals with consumer needs.

Zoe Medlock is an expert in customer vulnerability strategy and implementation. With nearly 10 years’ experience working in the sector, before joining the Money Advice Trust team, Zoe was most recently leading the team responsible for developing and delivering Barclays’ vulnerability strategy.

Zoe has extensive experience of creating policies, standards and procedures which help to embed support for customer vulnerability in the processes and governance structures that count. She has developed and delivered bank-wide training and knowledge strategies for customer vulnerability. Zoe also has experience of supporting teams to create MI dashboards for the management of customer vulnerability risk.

Prior to working in the corporate sector, Zoe was the Financial Inclusion Policy Officer at Toynbee Hall where she developed significant insight on topics including: high-cost credit, the credit union sector and financial education.

Robyn has been involved with the advice sector as a Specialist Debt Worker for over 30 years and is presently employed by a charity based in West Yorkshire. She has extensive experience of working with vulnerable customers via varying channels which include face-to-face, telephone and third parties. She supervises the work of others and is involved in Quality Assessment Audits, and Peer Reviews.

Robyn is a self-employed trainer and has worked for the Money Advice Trust since 2000. She has been involved in the design and delivery of training for both the commercial and voluntary sector. Additionally she has been involved in arranging bespoke debt training for organisations including the Institute of Money Advisers and StepChange Debt Charity.

Martha Lawton is a qualified trainer with over 12 years’ experience of supporting vulnerable people with their finances at both frontline and strategic levels. She has facilitated hundreds of financial capability workshops for vulnerable consumers, and staff at organisations supporting them. Learners have included people with addictions, mental health problems, and serious illnesses, as well as homeless people, prisoners and vulnerable young people. She describes this process as being like conducting thousands of hours of focus groups on vulnerability.

Most recently she project managed the development and setting up of a cancer specialist support team at Lloyds Banking Group for Macmillan Cancer Support.

Martha is especially interested in creating interactive learning experiences that help bring abstract or technical ideas to life and make them memorable and useful in practice.

Andy Langford is Chief Operating Officer for Cruse Bereavement Care, and has worked in the fields of homelessness, mental health, substance misuse, ageing and children for more than 20 years. Andy has been accredited with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) as a counsellor/psychotherapist for 12 years, and has practiced independently and as part of an agency. He also holds an MSc in Voluntary Sector Management, focusing on leadership, organisational culture and income generation. Andy has trained as a life coach and in cognitive behavioural therapy.

Andy has directly managed counselling services for a number of years, and has a particular interest in suicide prevention work and working with those bereaved through suicide. He has trained public, private and voluntary sector teams on how to support people in this context, as well as staff and volunteers on the receiving end of such material.

His recent work has involved major incident management and emergency response, having worked in the context of the London Bridge attack and the Grenfell Tower fire, and working with teams around change management and self-care.

Philip King is the Senior Training Consultant at the Trust. Phil holds a number of qualifications in learning and development in addition to being a Certified Customer Experience Professional (CCXP). His experience includes leading and developing training programmes in large financial services organisations, which include onshore and offshore investment platforms, discretionary fund management and financial advice.

Prior to working for the Trust, Phil was a Skills Development Consultant at Quilter plc., a leading wealth management firm in the UK. His primary focus was leading the creation and implementation of their vulnerable customer and communication training programmes.