James Abbott
Bury St. Edmunds,United Kingdom
Summary
A commercially astute leader with a proven track record of driving exponential revenue growth through optimised customer acquisition and full P&L accountability. I specialise in bridging the gap between data-driven strategy and client-centric execution, ensuring that every commercial initiative enhances the customer experience while delivering bottom-line results. With extensive experience navigating the FCA regulatory environment and C-suite governance.
Overview
13
13
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work history
Head of Revenue - UK
OANDA Europe
London
2024.07 - 2026.02
- P&L & Revenue Growth: Orchestrated strategic initiatives to achieve consecutive revenue targets, driving a 75% year-on-year increase and scaling regional turnover to exceed $18M .
- Market Expansion & Acquisition: Engineered and deployed high-impact marketing frameworks and promotional engines that accelerated client acquisition by 22% YoY , significantly expanding market share.
- Regional Turnaround & Transformation: Led the strategic pivot of the OEL region from the lowest-performing entity to firm's fastest-growing business unit in 2023.
- Monetization & Profitability Optimization: Partnered with Risk and Trading functions covering strategies, optimizing margins and maximizing profitability from high-value institutional flow.
- Stakeholder Influence & Capital Allocation: Leveraged exceptional performance data to secure a 40% increase in marketing spend from the Executive Committee (EXCO) to fund continued aggressive expansion.
- Board-Level Governance: Appointed to the OEL Board Committee to provide strategic oversight and deliver quarterly performance mandates to executive leadership, influencing the long-term trajectory of the region.
- Contact : Marcin Niewiadomski (MD Europe) - mniewiadomski@oanda.com
Head of Sales - UK
OANDA Europe
London
2022.07 - 2024.07
- Organizational Scaling: Spearheaded a 110% surge in annual client acquisition (2022–2024), architecting the infrastructure required to sustain triple-digit growth.
- Sales Lifecycle Optimization: Doubled sales conversion efficiency— surging from 18% to 36% —by re-engineering workflow productivity and optimizing the lead-to-revenue pipeline.
- High-Performance Team Leadership: Directed a multi-disciplinary commercial division of 24, overseeing Marketing, Sales, and Relationship Management to ensure cross-functional alignment with corporate KPIs.
- Reputation & Brand Transformation: Engineered a total turnaround of the firm's public sentiment, driving a Trustpilot score increase from 2.3 to 4.8 , establishing the brand as a market leader in client satisfaction.
- Award-Winning Market Positioning: Secured prestigious industry recognition, including Broker of the Year (Investment Trends & TradingView) , by elevating service standards and operational benchmarks.
- Strategic Global Networking: Cultivated a robust international partnership ecosystem, leveraging high-level relationship management to solidify market presence across key global jurisdictions.
High Net Worth Relationship Manager - UK and EU
OANDA Europe
London
2018.01 - 2021.01
- Strategic Retention Architecture: Designed and executed a high-touch retention framework that transformed conflict into loyalty, significantly reducing churn through sophisticated dispute resolution and root-cause analysis .
- International Market Expansion: Spearheaded global field operations , traveling extensively to key regions to negotiate and cement high-value, multi-jurisdictional partnerships.
- Account Management Excellence: Established an institutional-grade follow-up protocol that standardized client touchpoints, resulting in record-high Net Promoter Scores (NPS) and sustained portfolio stability.
- Relationship Equity Building: Cultivated a high-trust ecosystem for Tier-1 clients, leveraging a "service-first" leadership philosophy to secure long-term commercial commitments.
HVC Private Client Desk - UK, EMEA
LCG
London
2018.01 - 2018.03
- HNW Portfolio Growth: Architected bespoke retail trading solutions tailored for High-Net-Worth (HNW) individuals , driving premium capital inflows and long-term retention.
Head of Desk / Senior CF30 Equities Trader
Accendo Markets
London
2013.01 - 2018.01
- High-Velocity Revenue Generation: Engineered a high-performance sales environment that surpassed $1M in spread revenue within a single calendar month , setting a regional record for desk productivity.
- Strategic Team Leadership: Directed a specialized team of Sales Executives and Relationship Managers, fostering a culture of accountability and precision that drove consistent over-performance against monthly KPIs.
- Premium Service Architecture: Architected and deployed an elite Execution-Only (E/O) service framework , leveraging Bloomberg terminal data, technical charting, and institutional analyst flow to provide high-net-worth clients with a competitive market edge.
- Market Positioning & Portfolio Growth: Spearheaded the business development strategy for an award-winning CFD and spread betting provider, successfully scaling the firm's footprint in the highly regulated and competitive financial services sector.
- Advisory & Intelligence Integration: Elevated the client value proposition by integrating sophisticated broker insights and market-moving intelligence into the daily sales cycle, increasing client retention and lifetime value (LTV).
Education
Certificate of Higher Education - Chief Revenue Officer
Cambridge University
Cambridge 2026.10 -
BTEC - Sport Science
Seevic College
Essex 2008.01 - 2012.01
GCSEs -
De La Salle School
Essex 2002.01 - 2008.01
Skills
- Leadership and decision-making
- Commercial acumen
- Revenue analysis
- Sales operations efficiency
- Business development
- Client acquisition
- Data analytics
Websites
Certification
Chief Revenue Officer Programme - Ongoing
CF30 Accredited (2013) Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)
RG-146 - Foreign Exchange & Derivatives (2018) Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC)
Series 3 (2018) National Futures Association (NFA)
Series 34 (2018) National Futures Association (NFA)
LANGUAGES
English
Timeline
Certificate of Higher Education - Chief Revenue Officer
Cambridge University
2026.10 -
Head of Revenue - UK
OANDA Europe
2024.07 - 2026.02
Head of Sales - UK
OANDA Europe
2022.07 - 2024.07
High Net Worth Relationship Manager - UK and EU
OANDA Europe
2018.01 - 2021.01
HVC Private Client Desk - UK, EMEA
LCG
2018.01 - 2018.03
Head of Desk / Senior CF30 Equities Trader
Accendo Markets
2013.01 - 2018.01
BTEC - Sport Science
Seevic College
2008.01 - 2012.01
GCSEs -
De La Salle School
2002.01 - 2008.01