Claire is a multi-award-winning counter-fraud expert and has worked in industry since 2014, having progressed from Analyst to Director within 4 years. Claire’s counter-fraud background spans risk, product, operations, and strategy, across a range of product types such as global retail, investments, foreign exchange and cryptocurrency.
Claire complements her practitioner experience with academic research, currently undertaking a part-time PhD at the University of Portsmouth, looking into insider fraud within FinTechs. To date, Claire has a Bachelor’s (Hons) in French Studies from the University of Warwick and a Master’s in Counter Fraud and Counter Corruption Studies from the University of Portsmouth.
As a result of her own lived experience at University during her undergraduate degree, Claire founded STUC (Stammerers Through University Consultancy) in 2014 after facing penalisation and discrimination owing to her stammer. Through STUC – a one-woman initiative – Claire delivers focus groups and talks at universities nationwide, to understand their strengths and weaknesses regarding supporting students and staff who stammer. From these, Claire examines the outputs, creating and advising on long-term resolutions.
In 2023, Claire was awarded Director of the Year at the UK FinTech Awards and shortlisted for several other accolades including Woman of the Year and Head of Financial Crime of the Year. By March 2024, she had already received awards for her work with STUC, as well as been a finalist for Best Business Leader in Training & Education, FinTech Businesswoman of the Year, Champion for Culture & Inclusion and FinTech Leader of the Year.
Since 2022 Claire has used her stammer (which had always been considered by others as a ‘weakness’) and her fear of public speaking to charm audiences at national and international events. Whether she is presenting, hosting, chairing or moderating, Claire stammers openly and unapologetically, combining anecdotes, practice, academic theory and humour to deliver engaging and thought-provoking content.
