London Governance & Compliance Academy

David Symes

David Symes is MD of Compliance Recruitment Solutions, a global recruitment firm managed by former Compliance Officers and has almost 34 years  experience of the Compliance Sector. He started his career with a leading City firm of Chartered Accountants and after qualifying worked in Audit with Banque Indosuez then moved to Guardian Royal Exchange (then a FTSE 100 Insurance & Investments Group, now part of AXA) to set up their first Compliance Dept.

Originally in charge of all Investment Management Compliance he became Deputy Head of Group Compliance and briefly Head of Life & Pensions Compliance too until resigning over Fraud issues (later the national media reported the Fraud Squad dawn raided & arrested the Board Directors involved).   

He then set up CRS where he has recruited for regulated firms globally, Regulatory Authorities (in the UK, across the Middle East and in Hong Kong) as well as consultancies & law firms. He was President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants London Area 2012-13 and still chairs their Compliance Group, sits on the Advisory Board of MLROs.com and was chair of ACAMS UK Chapter 2013-17. He has spoken at Compliance Conferences in the UK & Middle East including ACAMS, the APCC, CISI & Thomson Reuters and a couple of times been a guest on LBC Radio discussing Compliance & Regulation.