As co-chairs of the Scottish Financial Enterprise Young Professionals, one of our goals is to get closer to our members and increase your visibility of, and access to, opportunities to get involved.

We are therefore delighted to announce and publish our first chair update, which we will use to share all the latest updates and opportunities to get involved with the network.

At the start of the year, we were delighted to welcome Lauren Kerr as our Membership Lead, whose skillset will be instrumental in attracting Young Professionals into the industry and network. We were also really excited to welcome Nikki Elpidoforou as our new Engagement Lead who is already driving engagement across the different YP communities: YP members, firm reps, committee members and the leadership team.

Our Workstreams have also been busy. The Climate & Journey to Net Zero workstream attended the All Energy Conference in May and have some exciting plans for the remainder of 2025, moving into 2026. Our Changing Customer Needs Workstream helped organise January’s Parliamentary reception, represented the Young Professionals at an FCA vulnerable customer workshop and will be representing the Young Professionals again at September’s Vulnerable Customer Summit.

The Skills & Inclusion Workstream organised a panel discussion on how organisations can better support LGBT+ colleagues and communities in financial services, and collaborated with our Mental Health and Wellbeing Workstream to explore how visible and invisible disabilities can shape colleague experiences.

We were also really excited to formally announce the introduction of a new Economic Growth Workstream at the Edinburgh Summer Reception, which is specifically designed to deliver on SFE’s Sector Growth Strategy.

To give you an idea of the kind of opportunities to expect from this Workstream, Sandy Begbie, Chief Executive of Scottish Financial Enterprise, has kindly presented the following opportunities for YPs to support with:

• Preparing for Scotland’s Global Investment Summit in October; a truly unique event and opportunity to attract global investment in Financial Services.
• Global Financial Centre Index benchmarking initiatives, as we seek to get Edinburgh into the top 20 and Glasgow into the top 30 global financial centres. 
• Support the government's Economic Growth support group, FiSGAD.

We are also using this Economic Growth Workstream to stand up ad hoc projects and teams to deliver growth initiatives on demand and have been working with SFE to more closely align to their strategy and structures by assigning at least one Young Professional and one YP board sponsor to each of SFE’s strategic initiatives.

One such role is our new getinto.finance Lead, which we were delighted to welcome Finlay Stewart into. Finlay played a leading role in SFE’s school engagement programme and represented the Young Professionals at SFE’s Skills Summit, where we celebrated apprenticeships and other training programme success stories. In this role, Finlay will collaborate closely with SFE and their partners, supporting young people and Lauren Kerr, our Membership Lead, to bridge the gap between industry and education to attract fresh talent into the sector.

We’ve also been busy mobilising our US buddy scheme and we’re thrilled to share that Cohort 1 is now full, with 47 Young Professionals from Scotland and 47 from the US signed up and ready to connect. If you missed out this time, don’t worry — we’re now accepting names for the waitlist for Cohort 2, so there’s still a chance to get involved!

Last but by no means least, we kicked off our 'In Conversation With' webinar series, hearing from new board members Andrew Wilson and Roland Inglis and we have a healthy pipeline of conversations with senior leaders in the coming months, so please do sign up and engage with these.

To summarise, we hope these announcements demonstrate the lengths we are going to, to put the structures, people and opportunities in place to allow Young Professionals, both individually and collectively, to thrive.

Thanks for your time in reading this and your continued engagement with the network.

Daniel Lindley-Pilley & Jess Insall, Co-Chairs of the Scottish Financial Enterprise Young Professionals.

Requests for Support:

• IMPORTANT: Sign up to the Young Professionals group on the new member platform.
• IMPORTANT: Please complete our feedback survey, which allows us to tailor our strategy, offerings and opportunities to your needs.
• If you are not sure who your YP Firm Rep is, or would like to get involved in that community, please reach out to our Engagement Lead, Nikki Elpidoforou.
• We are looking to include SFE and Young Professionals materials in our member firm onboarding/induction processes and materials. If you would like to get involved please reach out to our Membership Lead, Lauren Kerr.
• Please also reach out to Lauren if you would like to get involved in our new joiner recruitment drive around September’s graduate/placement intakes or Jess Insall for our university collaboration initiatives.
• Please share your YP experiences and content on LinkedIn and don’t forget to tag us!
• For all events hosting enquiries, please contact either Chair, Daniel Lindley-Pilley or Jess Insall. We have a pipeline of events waiting for hosts and are equally open to new ideas or proposals generally, so please do get in touch!

Industry Updates

Government should ignore siren calls and go for growth

In our CEO Sandy's latest contribution to Scottish Business Insider, he argues why now, more than ever, the government should champion a robust strategy for economic growth and resist the temptation to raise taxes, which are already at a 70-year high and risk stifling innovation and job creation.

The full article can be read here.

Sandy Begbie interview with John Lothian News

In a recent interview with John Lothian News, Sandy shared how SFE is connecting asset managers, fintech innovators, and academic institutions to tackle some of the industry's most pressing challenges, from AI and data to ESG reporting.

Watch the full interview here.

Counting the cost of digital and financial exclusion

A new report from Virgin Money and WPI Economics reveals the true cost of digital and financial exclusion in Scotland.

Read more here.

Scotland’s investment potential in spotlight ahead of October summit

We recently shared a piece highlighting the role that Scotland’s Global Investment Summit could play in spurring growth across key sectors within Scotland including financial and professional services, green energy and life sciences.

Find out more.

Regulating for growth: A cultural shift for a competitive UK

We welcomed the new report from the City of London Corporation which calls for sensible and practical steps to improve the regulatory landscape in the UK to help stimulate economic growth.

Download the report here.

Scotland 'strengthens position' as European financial services hub

TheCityUK’s latest report, ‘Enabling Growth Across the UK 2025’, highlights the vital role of Scotland’s financial and professional services sector in driving economic growth and jobs.

Read more here.

Scottish Financial Enterprise responds to Mansion House speech

We shared our thoughts on the Mansion House speech and the Leeds reforms. Read the full quote on our website here.

Accelerating growth in Scotland’s financial services sector

Scotland’s financial services sector could boost GVA by 21% and create 16,000 new jobs by 2028, according to new research from EY.

Find out more here.

The awards, sponsored by EY, will take place in Edinburgh in October and are a flagship industry-wide celebration to recognise the contribution both firms and their people have made to the Scottish financial services sector and to wider society.

The partnership with Maggie’s aims to raise funds to support to those living with a cancer diagnosis through its network of support centres across the country.

Maggie’s benefits advisers provide expert help and advice with applying for financial support, and in 2024 helped visitors claim £15.6 million in benefits and grants in Scotland.

Maggie’s also provides free emotional and practical support for anyone affected by a diagnosis of cancer including friends and family, with purpose built, beautifully designed centres beside major NHS cancer hospitals providing a safe, welcoming space away from the clinical environment of the hospital.

Sue Dawe, head of Financial Services, Scotland, EY, said: “The Scottish Financial Services Awards is an annual reminder of the impact of our industry on wider society.

“Scotland’s FS sector is a place people can build meaningful careers and drive impact for social good. Supporting causes which provide important resources for our communities, such as Maggie’s, is one of the many ways that our sector positively contributes to society.”

Sandy Begbie CBE, CEO of SFE, said: “Our annual awards are an opportunity for us to come together as a sector to highlight the good work of our people and recognise our positive impact on wider society.

“Driving financial inclusion is a key pillar of our strategy and with one in two people facing a cancer diagnosis during their lifetime, we are delighted to support Maggie’s as they provide practical and emotional support to those affected by cancer.

“The SFE team will be looking at ways to raise funds from now until the night of the awards and we look forward to visiting our local Maggie’s centre to see the impact that our contribution will have.”

Samantha Lea, centre fundraising manager at Maggie’s Edinburgh, said: “We are delighted to have been chosen as Scottish Financial Enterprise’s annual charity partner.

“The partnership will allow us to reach as many people as possible living with cancer providing a range of practical and psychological support, including help with money worries.

“We know money can cause a huge amount of anxiety for people after a diagnosis but our benefits advisors can make sure people get everything they are entitled to and leave them freer to focus on their treatment.

“We are so grateful.”

The awards, set for the 23 October, will be hosted by comedian and impressionist Rory Bremner. Tickets and entries for the awards are now on sale. More information can be found here.

The report highlights the progress we have made across our strategic delivery, in key areas like net zero, skills, and changing customer needs. It also provides a summary of our growth and competitiveness agenda, which includes the launch of our growth strategy and international prospectus and FDI campaign.

You can read about the goals and targets we set across our public policy, communications, events and membership functions to deliver growing level of profile and engagement while broadening our member proposition and enhancing our operational capability.

You can also explore our timelines of milestones, our board and governance structure, and more.