Iona is an award-winning money expert, broadcaster, columnist and podcaster who specialises in personal finance. Iona is BBC Morning Live’s resident money expert and one of the go-to reporters for the show. Her talks draw from time spent meeting and interviewing consumers, regulators, politicians as well as those in the financial services industry. This experience has revealed a huge disconnect between how businesses think people behave and what we actually do when confronted with hard, confusing and overwhelming decisions.
In 2011, Iona founded the pioneering Young Money Blog, establishing herself as the UK’s leading voice on millennial finances throughout the 2010s. Her expertise covers a range of financial topics, from tackling money mulling to cash stuffing, and her 2022 report on dyscalculia (commonly referred to as “numbers dyslexia”) brought significant attention to the condition. This ground breaking work earned her an ambassadorship with National Numeracy.
Over her 13-year career, Iona has appeared extensively on television and radio, including Question Time, Newsnight, and Panorama. In 2023, she presented two in-depth investigations for File on 4, having previously hosted Radio 4’s Moneybox and co-presented The Austerity Audit with Paul Johnson in 2020.
Iona is a prolific writer, contributing a weekly column to The i newspaper and a bi-weekly column for Metro. Her insights have also been featured in youth and women-focused outlets such as Vogue, Refinery29, and VICE. As an author, her latest book, Own It, empowers young people to build a brighter financial future through smart investing.
Dedicated to improving financial literacy, Iona recently launched Focus on Finance, an initiative designed to educate the next generation about the financial industry through engaging in-person events with inspiring speakers. In 2024, she was awarded the Freedom of the City of London in recognition of her contributions to young people’s financial education.
Drawing on her extensive background as a money expert and leading broadcaster, Iona provides detailed, insightful analysis of potential policy shifts and their real-world impact on audiences and their work. Known for her work on BBC Morning Live and for hosting Legal & General’s podcast A Little Bit Richer, Iona is a highly experienced speaker who has chaired and spoken at events across the UK and Europe.
Having spent years interviewing consumers, regulators, politicians, and financial leaders, she offers a sharp perspective on the disconnect between how businesses think people behave and how they actually act when faced with hard, confusing, and overwhelming decisions.
Iona is available for keynotes, panel discussions, and event hosting.
KEYNOTE TOPICS
Britain and Money
What's Really Changed? Drawing on thousands of conversations with consumers, this talk looks beyond the headlines to explore what’s really changing.
Younger generations have rewritten the rules around work, housing, retirement, saving and spending, fundamentally altering the landscape for businesses, policymakers, and
employers.
The Psychology of Money
The biggest barriers to good financial decisions are mathematical and emotional. Whether it's pensions, debt, fraud or investing, people often know what they should do but struggle to act. Through stories from BBC Morning Live, Panorama and years of consumer reporting, this talk explores what really drives financial behaviour, and why understanding people's behaviour is just as important as understanding products.
Building Trust in an Age of AI
AI has the potential to transform financial guidance, improve customer service and make support more accessible than ever before. But technology also creates new risks, new
expectations and new questions about trust. This talk looks at where innovation is genuinely helping consumers, where it's falling short, and how organisations can use technology without losing sight of the people they're trying to serve
Talking About Money Better
Fifteen years of reporting and broadcasting, answering the publics’ questions on finance has reinforced one lesson above all, people switch off when financial information becomes complicated. This talk explores how to communicate difficult subjects with clarity, confidence and empathy, whether you're talking to customers, employees or the media.
Testimonial
“A huge thanks to Iona – absolutely wonderful talk and she is a charming and lovely individual too. She ended the event beautifully and her talk was pitch perfect on the topic she had been given” - Suffolk Building Society