About Quartic

Principal

Nicholas graduated with a maths degree from Queens’ College, Cambridge in 1990. He qualified as a chartered accountant with Price Waterhouse (now PwC) then joined Ernst & Young as a management consultant, specialising in emerging markets banking sectors. Nicholas spent a few years in investment banking with ING Barings before realising that teaching financial markets was as much fun as working in them.

He has taught classes for financial markets and the CFA® Program since 2001, including three years based in Singapore, and has presented in places as diverse as Johannesburg, Shanghai, Taipei, Tokyo, Zurich and Dublin.

As chief executive of Quartic he is proud to have built a business founded on quality of tuition and excellence of client service.

Outside class Nicholas is an avid investor, disproving theories of market efficiency. His guru, Warren Buffett, is on the family tree. Nicholas also maintains close ties with Queens’ College and enjoys involvement with a range of other inspiring organisations through his trusteeship of a charitable foundation.

Director of Education

Dianne has been a Financial Training Instructor since 2003 and has both designed and delivered training programmes for clients across the retail banking, investment banking and corporate finance sectors.  Specifically, she has provided training on a range of accountancy and financial services programmes including CFA, ICAEW Corporate Finance, ACCA, IMC, CISI and the Chartered Banker Diploma.

Not only is Dianne a CFA charterholder and a fellow of the ACCA, she also has an MSc. in Accounting and is a certificated member of the Chartered Institute of Bankers in Scotland. In addition, Dianne has successfully completed the IMC, the CISI’s Certificate in Corporate Finance and Certificate in Securities.

Prior to her career in financial training, Dianne worked as a management accountant for a private training company and provided business consultancy services to SMEs.   Dianne has also, in the past, held a senior editorial role with a company involved in the publication of textbooks relevant to the ACCA qualification where she acted as a subject matter expert on Financial Management and Corporate Finance and gained insight into the creation of learning materials to meet a variety of learning styles.

In addition, Dianne has written articles for a London based magazine aimed at students studying towards the ACCA, ICAEW and CIMA qualifications, has been interviewed by Corporate Financier magazine, has acted as a panel member for a Guardian debate on forecasting for SMEs and made media comments to londonlovesbusiness.com on the effect of Brexit on the value of the pound.

Dianne recently discovered a hidden talent for cake decorating so when she is not in the classroom she can be found creating 3D cakes, sugar flowers and life like figurines of her friends and family.

Commercial Director

Ioannis has a decade of experience in higher and professional education in the areas of Accounting and Finance.

Before joining Quartic Ioannis led Financial Services professional qualifications training programmes within a prominent education group. This included the design and operation of FS apprenticeship programmes for a range of clients.

He closely collaborates with professional bodies, including the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment, CFA Institute, CFA UK, the Chartered Banker Institute and the Chartered Institute of Insurance. For CISI he authored and reviewed two qualification workbooks.

Before moving into professional education, Ioannis worked in the Investment Management industry for 17 years. After graduating from Boston College in Boston, Massachusetts, with an MSc in Finance, he worked as an investment analyst, a portfolio manager in mutual funds, and an investment manager for high net worth individuals.

Ioannis is passionate about education and the benefits of professional qualifications for all practitioners providing investment advice and management.

Business Development Manager

Sandor is a Juris Doctor. Before joining Quartic, Sandor was involved with Legal Advising, Online Publishing and Business/Sales Development and Management.

Sandor believes in daily learning and development, being a jack-of-all-trades and master of some, and believes that building new things is the essence of professional life.

Sandor is originally from Hungary where he studied Law and Political Scienses while acquiring some self-taught IT knowledge as well, with which he filled in different roles in Hungarian and international companies as well.

On his rare spare time Sandor enjoys family life, films, and is an avid videogame player of 35 years practice on this field.

Duncan Hughes has 25 years experience in financial markets, gained in senior positions at leading financial institutions including Rothschild and Threadneedle Asset Management. His experience spans all major asset classes including fixed income, equity and property investment. Responsibilities have included investment strategy formulation, portfolio construction, treasury management, risk analysis and the use of derivatives for position taking and risk management. In his early career Duncan was a quantitative analyst and was the recipient of the Institute of Investment Management and Research (IIMR, the precursor to the CFA (UK) organisation) prize for Statistics and Financial Mathematics. Through board level positions at specialist boutique finance houses he has gained considerable experience of alternative asset classes, structured products and derivatives.

Duncan was a member of the CFA UK’s examination panel for over ten years, having had particular responsibility for the Fixed Interest and Economics subject areas for the Investment Management Certificate (IMC) qualification. He has been a guest lecturer at the London Financial Academy and on MSc Finance courses at London Metropolitan University. Duncan has published a book on asset management and recently authored an article on risk management for Bloomsbury Press.

A lawn tennis tour professional in his youth, Duncan now spends his leisure time participating in, and recovering from, Triathlon events.

Julia is an experienced facilitator and coach specializing in holistic leadership, team communication and building employee engagement, resilience and motivation through the connections we make with others. Julia strongly believes that success and results are determined by our relationships and seeking to understand and adapt to others.

With an extensive background working in sales roles for high profile brands in the publishing industry, she worked across Europe before working as Regional Sales Director roles in Singapore and South-East Asia. Julia was based in Singapore for over 20 years and her practical, real-world experience of building relationships, designing and delivering training to a variety of clients, markets and cultures as well as senior positions managing sales functions gives her the insight needed to make her facilitation relevant and add commercial value to those she works with.

Working in facilitation roles for over a decade, Julia specialises in developing individuals to improve their skills, confidence and performance. Her style is supportive, highly engaging but challenging and she focusses on getting the best out of people and to build their confidence to deliver into the future.

Julia is passionate about supporting individual growth and empowerment and has been a guest speaker at several high-profile Women’s Leadership events across Asia.