UNA Alliance

Mark Pittaccio

Mark is a leading behavioural economist, keynote speaker and consultant with over 35 years of professional experience. He has held a number of high profile senior management and board positions in the financial sector and has run his own IFA practice. He has worked on the advisory, distribution and provider sides of financial services spending much of it helping advisers to create and deliver compelling client propositions and investment strategies.

Mark has often been at the forefront of developments in the financial world. From helping to create the first personal contract hire plans for the acquisition of vehicles to the development of investment wrap platforms and risk-rated multi-asset funds. He was also an early champion of transparent, fee-based financial advice.

His research into the personality of successful financial advisers has attracted a lot of attention and is being further developed. In addition, the concept of Adviser Delta, or measuring the difference that taking advice makes, has received industry recognition and an award for innovation. He holds a Masters Degree in Behavioural Economics and his current research will form part of a PhD currently being undertaken at the University of London.

Throughout his career, Mark has been fascinated by the way in which consumers make the decisions they do, recognising that if a business truly understood the factors behind individual economic decision making they could alter their proposition to ethically attract and retain more of their target client group. This interest led him to study the science of behavioural economics and eventually to a second career as The Behavioural Economist. 

Mark uses his professional experience and academic research to help organisations run profitably, grow sustainably and create real value so that when the time is right, people can step back or exit their businesses confidently. As a successful rugby and cycling coach for the last 25 years Mark also uses his sporting experience to build effective teams and motivate individual performance. He helped to launch a charity that completes all 21 stages of the Tour de France one week before the professional riders and has completed this himself on three occasions. He is also a drummer in a rock band that are more noted for their enthusiasm than their talent.

Nick Looby

Nick’s message is for you if you’re drowning in an ocean of noise and your career depends on you being heard. Nick suggests you can (and you must) take this even further. Don’t settle for being heard but ensure that you get through! 

We all want to enjoy stronger relationships at work and at home, secure incredible success with clients and loved ones and have the sort of fun we deserve through enhanced and impactful human communication.  It’s not much to ask but we have forgotten how.

Nick has been delighting audiences for over a decade with his power to inspire action.  Through focused observation, insightful humour and strategies that every audience can embrace and implement immediately.

With his potent and unique approach to communication, Nick will not only alter the way you think, but, more importantly, transform the way you act.  Nick continues to help some of the world’s most influential organisations, including HSBC, Bayer Animal Health, Proctor & Gamble, The Property Ombudsman and the BBC to greater success by enabling them to communicate with more courage, influence and purpose.

Nick’s appearance on Sky TV’s Business Intelligence show, the Sandro Forte Podcast series and various radio programs has unleashed the human communication message far and wide.  The world is tiring of tech-only communication solutions and Nick’s message has never been more timely.

Nick is extremely proud to be among the TED family, speaking at TEDx events in 2015 at which he played a game of ‘catch’ with the entire audience and in 2017 where he opened up the debate around the dangers of our communication evolution.  Both were fun-filled milestones in his development as an authority on modern communication and how to wake up your audience and inspire courageous action.

Nick’s book, Modern Zombies, published in November 2017, has shaken up the communication industry and sparked some incredibly interesting debates across all sectors.

What do you do if your messages are no longer resonating with your audience?  Where do you turn if the cheap, easy and convenient methods of communication you have come to rely upon are no longer working? Why can’t we communicate with our kids anymore? 

Nick’s content is changing the way we approach these and many other substantial 21st Century human dilemmas.

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