Iona Bain is an award-winning journalist, broadcaster, speaker and author, and is the UK’s go-to voice on millennial money. Since founding the pioneering Young Money Blog in 2011, she’s gone on to become one of the most respected financial writers of her generation, with a rare combination of accessibility and authority.

Iona’s beginnings in the finance world came when she was a jobbing musician still living at her parents home back in Edinburgh, and her savings were burgled from her piggy bank. All she knew about money needed to change and her dyscalculia meant her uphill struggle was larger than most. Iona founded Young Money Blog to help her generation get to grips with their finances and quickly found an audience with her down-to-earth, witty and helpful analysis of the financial problems facing millennials. Iona is BBC Morning Live’s financial expert and has also appeared on Rip Off Britain, NewsNight, Question Time and the One Show.

Iona’s empathetic approach has earned her the title Money Hacker in residence for Radio 1’s flagship advice programme Life Hacks. She has been flying the flag for young people’s financial rights on the airwaves for over 10 years, and has also been a roving financial reporter for Channel 4’s Steph’s Packed Lunch. Podcast appearances range from the Spectator’s flagship Edition show, to Free the Geezer with rap group The Manor, to Saira Khan’s podcast Backing Brilliant Business, demonstrating Iona’s versatility. Iona is also a staple of online youth and female-focused media, with recent contributions to VICE UK, British Vogue and Refinery 29.

Iona writes a weekly column for the i paper, and is a regular contributor to the Financial Times. Her journalism and commentary have appeared extensively in both national and regional titles, including the Times, the Daily Telegraph, the Daily Mail, the Independent and the New Statesman, and Iona’s book ‘Own It!’ is all about how young people can invest their way to a better future.

Iona is particularly proud of her educational work, having collaborated with BBC Social, BBC Bitesize and Young Scot to produce a series of educational videos. She also worked with the Lloyds Banking Academy on the Your Future Finances initiative, the first educational programme in the UK to be fully sign language enabled. Iona is also the youngest-ever governor of the Pensions Policy Institute.

Will is the Managing Director of Strategy, Analytics and Nest Insight at Nest. He has spent almost 20 working in strategy, public policy, research and communications roles relating to personal finance and pensions, including working for the UK government on financial inclusion policy and the design and implementation of their landmark automatic enrolment programme. In 2008 he joined Nest, shortly after it was formed, and joined the Executive Team in 2010 as Strategy Director. In 2016 he oversaw the launch of the Nest Insight Unit, which he still leads alongside responsibility for Strategy, Data and Analytics for Nest more broadly.

In his role as Nest Will has published papers on pensions policy, workplace emergency saving and financial wellbeing in the AARP International Journal, the International Journal of Pensions Management and with the World Bank, among others, as well as authoring and contributing to a number of Nest Insight reports. He has spoken on these topics at conferences and events in the UK, Europe, Asia and North America.

Outside of Nest he has acted as an independent adviser and subject matter expert on research projects for Natcen and the Behavioural Insights Team. He previously served as a member of the International Centre for Pensions Management’s research committee.

Alyshia became Head of Team in early 2021, and is responsible for leading on a broad range of the PLSA’s DC, master trust and lifetime savings policy and advocacy.

Alyshia originally joined the PLSA in October 2018 as secondee Policy Lead for the Cost Transparency Initiative and became the Policy Lead for DC at the beginning of 2020. She came to the PLSA from Wholesale & Investments Competition at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) where she worked on both the Asset Management Market Study and the Wholesale Sector Competition Review. In 2015/16 she was a seconded expert to the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) in Paris, where she worked on financial innovation and MiFID II.

Previous roles are as a regulatory conduct supervisor of investment management firms and investigator of criminal and civil market abuse cases. Alyshia’s degree is in Philosophy and the Political Economy (University of Exeter). Alyshia is a PRINCE2 Practitioner and has held Chartered MSCI status with the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investments since 2016.

Matthew is Nest Insight’s Analysis Director. Prior to taking up the Nest Insight role, Matthew was responsible for Nest’s proposition for its members. He joined Nest from the Department for Work and Pensions, where he developed public information strategies for State and Workplace Pension Reform. Before this, he headed up research and communications teams at PwC, Buck Consultants and Talking People.

Jo leads Nest Insight’s public-benefit research programme, working collaboratively with partners across the sector to better understand the challenges facing savers on low to mid incomes, and to develop and test potential solutions to those challenges. Current work includes a trial of a hybrid ‘sidecar’ savings tool with five UK employers, a programme of technology-based trials looking at how to support self-employed people to save for retirement and a series of projects looking at how to increase engagement in workplace pension saving to drive positive behavioural outcomes.

Before joining Nest Insight in 2018 she worked in a range of insight and strategy consultancy roles, leading innovation work addressing a future opportunities for clients across different sectors including financial services, government, charities and consumer goods.

Joe joined the Living Wage Foundation in March 2021 as the Research Manager. His role involves conducting research into Minimum/Living Wage, low pay and in-work poverty. He is passionate about improving employment conditions as a means of reducing poverty in the UK.  Before joining the Foundation, Joe worked in Research roles at Gingerbread – the charity supporting single parents – and the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry.  Outside of work, Joe’s interests include football, films, politics and sci-fi novels. Joe holds a BA and Master’s degree, both from the University of Sheffield.

Joanna is Managing Director of the Aspen Institute Financial Security Program, a leading national voice on Americans’ financial health. She is responsible for conceptualizing, planning, and overseeing the program’s research, convenings, and programs, aimed at furthering FSP’s mission to illuminate and solve the most critical financial challenges facing American households and to make financial security for all a top national priority. Joanna has more than 15 years of experience across community, personal finance, and asset development. She joined Aspen FSP as the Director of its Expanding Prosperity Impact Collaborative (EPIC), where she built the program from the ground up and conceptualized and launched EPIC’s first two issues — income volatility and household debt — which FSP studies from causes to broader impact to market and policy solutions. Prior to joining FSP, Joanna served as Senior Innovation Director at Commonwealth, leading the unit that designs, tests, and evaluates promising financial service innovations. While at Commonwealth, Joanna developed innovations to improve savings and financial capability, including prize-linked savings, tax time savings, gamification, emergency savings, and youth savings. Additionally, Joanna led several federal grants, developed and sustained national coalitions, and built a network of industry partners.

Lindsay joined the Resolution Foundation in February 2016. She oversees the organisation’s work on a range of issues including housing, labour market enforcement and lived experience.

Prior to joining the Resolution Foundation Lindsay worked for Child Poverty Action Group, the World Bank and Oxfam, developing policies to assist those on low incomes in the UK, transition and developing country economies.