Sally Dewar
Governance, Culture and Regulatory Expert
Trusted adviser to boards and senior executives on governance, culture & purpose, non-financial risk & compliance, and regulatory strategy.
Biography
Sally acts as a trusted adviser to Senior Executives and Boards providing bespoke strategic advisory, regulatory and consulting services. She is an expert in governance, culture & purpose, non-financial risk & compliance, and regulatory advisory. Clients have included major international banks, asset managers and insurers as well as fintech unicorns, big data and corporates.
She has worked in the financial and professional services sectors for over 25 years, most recently CEO of A&O Shearman’s consulting business which she established in 2018. The team she built comprised subject matter experts in governance, culture and compliance, regulatory change, transformation, and financial crime, based in London, Australia and the US, working with firms globally. Prior to joining A&O, she was Head of JP Morgan’s International Office of Regulatory Affairs for over seven years. After starting her career at KPMG, she also spent 10 years at the Financial Services Authority (FSA), where she was latterly Managing Director of the Risk Division and an Executive member of the FSA Board.
In industry, Sally worked as a Senior Executive and Regulatory Advisor to the JPM EMEA and APAC leadership teams. Major projects included: leading discussions with regulators on Brexit strategy; designing and delivering the culture and conduct agenda across EMEA and APAC (later adopted worldwide); developing an individual accountability regime that accommodated multiple regulatory frameworks; and overseeing EMEA governance, including governance effectiveness reviews in multiple locations, alongside responsibility for JPM’s international regulatory policy advocacy.
Sally has substantive, practical and regulatory experience of board-level and executive governance and supports firms in assessing their effectiveness and enhancing governance operating frameworks to improve efficiency and decision-making. She has implemented leadership accountability regimes for global institutions and supported ongoing enhancements, particularly for reasonable-steps frameworks. She advises on broader regulatory obligations both as a retained adviser and on specific issues. She has designed and delivered resolution fire-drills for board training, facilitated scenario-based discussions, considered risk management across strategic and regulatory issues, and carried out in-depth culture reviews.
Sally was an Industry Professor at University College London from 2021–23 on a taught Masters in Private Equity, Finance and Fintech, and has served on various boards as a Non-Executive Director. She is currently on the Advisory Board of Umony Ltd and contributes to the Møller Institute’s Leadership Programme at the University of Cambridge.