About us About us

Changing the world of gold investing.

Our journey and team

We are passionate about changing the world of gold investing for the better. Our ambitious vision is to make allocated physical gold trade in exactly the same way as all other regulated financial assets.

20 years ago we played a fundamental role in bringing innovation to the equities market. Now it is a fully electronic, multi-venue-routed, best execution space. We believe gold should operate the same way. And that’s what Goldex is about.

We are the first company to create a “plug & play” multi-dealer solution to enable B2B2C companies to easily offer allocated gold to their clients.

We also own an award-winning mobile app to allow retail investors to invest in allocated physical gold at the fairest price every time using our smart router technology.

We think the £4.5bn daily traded, allocated gold market is worth the effort. We hope you do too.

Join the rush. Become a pioneer.

Meet the team

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    Sylvia Carrasco
    Founder & CEO

    As a woman in FinTech, which is a rarity, Sylvia is keen on challenging the status quo. She’s the founder and CEO of Goldex. With over 18 years of experience in investment banking and brokerage, Sylvia was part of the original team at Credit Suisse that developed the first electronic trading and algorithmic systems in the equity markets. Always thinking out of the box and due to the changes brought by MiFID I, in 2009 she successfully founded the first FCA regulated firm in the UK to advise the largest institutional investment houses in both electronic trading services and Best Execution policies across multi-asset classes.  In her spare time, Sylvia is likely to be seen either fishing or playing with her two dogs.

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    Fernando Ripolles
    Founder & COO

    Finding product and operational solutions are Fernando’s main responsibilities as the COO of Goldex. This is by no means an easy task as pioneers don’t have templates to imitate, but Fernando doesn’t need one. During his 15 years of professional career at Bloomberg, UBS and Nomura, Fernando was involved in the explosion and expansion of electronic trading, from its humble reporting origins to its current day algorithmic complexities. Always keen in exploring new opportunities, Fernando co-founded a social media network company before coming back to his trading roots. He is the proud father of three children that have been taught that Real Madrid is the only team to carry in your heart.

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    Julian Turnbull
    Founder & CLCO

    Julian is an entrepreneur at heart, sitting at various start-up boards. At Goldex he applies his legal thoroughness, just the same as the rest of his over-22-years-legal advisor career. He’s an economist and a lawyer, so that’s why he enjoys diving into businesses: he has co-founded Macrae & Co, a leading boutique law firm based in London where he has managed and represented high profile corporate and personal accounts, both national and international. He’s currently a senior partner at Shakespeare Martineau, a top 50 legal firm in the UK where he specialises in Private Equity deals, Corporate Governance, KYC and AML diligences. Beyond the law, he loves hanging out with his children and playing football.

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    Mark Parnell-Hopkinson
    Managing Director
    As a financial services and IT professional of 20 years, Mark has held senior management positions at PLUS Markets, Mint and BGC Partners in addition to co-founding SquareBook, a market-disrupting IPO business and MHRS, his own consultancy. His role as MD of Goldex draws upon his wealth of experience to direct day-to-day operations, give strategic guidance and ensure Goldex achieves its financial vision, mission and long term goals. He has a proven track record of delivering successful business solutions in technology and operations fields and is well respected in his field. Outside of the office, Mark is a keen motor racing fan, enjoys cycling in Epping Forest and yacht-racing in the Solent (weather permitting).
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    Adam Harrison
    Chief Marketing Officer

    Adam has the head of a marketer, heart of a linguistic and guts of an entrepreneur.  Spending just over 12 years in senior marketing and commercial roles at Facebook and Google in Europe and Latin America, Adam brings in-depth expertise in B2C, B2B, events marketing and more to Goldex. Leaving big tech, Adam changed gears to become a food entrepreneur, founding a small chain of high-street bakeries called Tart, whilst providing marketing consultancy to start-ups and scale-ups. His role at Goldex draws upon his marketing expertise and entrepreneurial drive to help fuel our next growth chapter. When not thinking about gold, Adam’s a keen linguistic and gardener.

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    Gaël de Boissard
    Member of the Board

    Gaël loves growing new ventures that want to reinvent the world of finance. With a career spanning 26 years at JP Morgan and Credit Suisse as a prominent investment banker, he now focusses on investments in market disruptive Fintech companies. He has recently retired from Credit Suisse AG, where he was Global Head of Fixed Income, Head of Investment Banking and Member of the Executive Board. Gael’s thrill seeking hobbies include skiing and mountaineering. As a holder of a commercial pilot license, you might also see him cruising the skies.

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    Craig James
    Member of the Board

    Bringing regulation practices down to earth has been Craig’s main professional goal. For this reason he founded Neopay, a notorious London based compliance and Anti Money Laundering consultancy firm in the prepaid, e-money and financial services sector. His 15 years of experience come handy when helping with payment and regulatory risk solutions. Craig has been named one of the “Top 10 Most Influential People in the Payments Industry” by PayExpo for three years in a row and is the current Chairman of the Prepaid International Forum. He is a piston-head at heart, restoring racing cars in his spare time.

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    Henry Ritchotte
    Board Advisor

    With over 20 years’ experience at Deutsche Bank, Henry created the blueprint for the German giant’s greenfield digital challenger bank, aiming to create extraordinary customer experience through intelligent use of technology, data and mobile devices. Henry was responsible over various periods for Group Strategy, Technology, Operations, Corporate Services, Corporate Security, Business Continuity, Information Security and the Bank’s global digital transformation agenda. He served as the Chief Operating Officer from 2012 to 2015, and has also worked for Credit Suisse and Merrill Lynch. He uses that depth of knowledge to seed financial services start ups, with a strong focus on disruptive regulatory and technology-driven business models. When he’s not creating – or tearing up – blueprints, Henry offsets his love of food and a good craft beer with long-distance running.

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    Richard Balarkas
    Board Advisor

    Richard is an award winning industry veteran who has been in the vanguard of developments in market structure and electronic trading for over 30 years. He has held senior sales and business management roles at the London Stock Exchange, BZW, Instinet and Credit Suisse where he built and ran its global #1 ranked electronic trading business. He is a board member of CBOE Europe, Saxo Capital Markets Ltd, Chairman of SquareBook, advisor to the board of Compliance Solutions Strategies, and a Director of FIX Protocol. When not fixing financial services he can usually be found fixing his house, or otherwise fixing his boat and trying not to add to his wife’s collection of near-disaster sailing stories.

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    Nina Amin
    Board Advisor

    Nina Amin, MBE is the Chair of the Investment Committee of the Unicorn Ascension Fund, which invests in UK-based startups looking to enter the Indian market. She’s an ex Partner of KPMG UK, one of the Big Four global professional services firms, and was head of their Asian Markets until Jan 2018. With over over 25 years of experience in providing commercial tax and financial advice across a broad range of areas including Corporate Governance, M&A transactions, due diligence, transfer pricing, reorganisations and financing, Nina has won a number of awards throughout her career, including an MBE in 2013 in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List. Nina is also the first female President of TiE London, a global non-profit organisation supporting entrepreneurs across multiple geographies. In her spare time, Nina likes to potter in the garden and is an avid reader.

Please reach out to talent@goldexapp.com if you are as excited as we are and want to join our growing team in London.