The Future of Life Assurance

Barry O’Dwyer

Managing Director, Retail Life and Pensions, Prudential

Biography

As Managing Director of Retail Life and Pensions at Prudential, Barry O'Dwyer is responsible for the P&L performance of what has consistently been the UK's highest-margin retail life company. His remit covers investment bonds, pensions and retirement income products in the UK and Europe.

Barry joined Prudential in January 2009 from HBOS Financial Services where he was responsible for investment, pension and protection products through the Halifax, Bank of Scotland and Clerical Medical Brands.

Prior to that, Barry was Managing Director of Marketing at Standard Life during a period of significant change for that company, which involved a complete overhaul of its product strategy.

Barry is an Actuary with over 20 years of experience of the financial services industry.

Mike Rogers

Group Chief Executive, LV=

Biography

Mike Rogers, 45, graduated from Cambridge University in 1986. He then joined Barclays Bank where he undertook a variety of roles in the UK and overseas, across business banking, wealth management and retail banking. Among various senior appointments at Barclays, Mike was Managing Director of Small Business, Premier Banking and UK Retail Banking.

In May 2006 Mike joined LV= as Group Chief Executive. LV= is a leading mutual financial services provider specialising in protection, retirement solutions, general insurance and asset management. LV= has over 3.8m members and customers, 4,000 employees, and £9.3bn in assets under management.

Mike has a post-graduate Diploma in Leadership from Exeter University, he is married with three children and lives in Poole, Dorset. His interests include rugby, cricket, golf and keeping fit.

Trevor Matthews

Chief Executive Officer, Friends Provident

Biography

Trevor Matthews joined Friends Provident as Chief Executive Officer on 30th July 2008 from Standard Life Assurance Limited where he was Chief Executive from 2004 to July 2008. He was previously President and Chief Executive Officer of Manulife Japan from 2001 to 2004 and Executive Vice President of Canadian Operations and Chairman of Manulife Bank from 1998 to 2001. Prior to this, Trevor was General Manager of Personal Finance Services for National Australia Bank between 1996 and 1998 and Managing Director of Legal & General Assurance Holdings Australia Limited between 1989 and 1996.

Trevor is Chairman of the Financial Services Skills Council and was President of the Chartered Insurance Institute from July 2008 to July 2009. In 1997 he was President of the Institute of Actuaries of Australia (Centenary Year). Trevor is a member of the Board of the Association of British Insurers and a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales Financial Services Faculty Advisory Group.

He is married with three children.

Mark Gregory

Group Executive Director, Savings, Legal & General

Biography

Mark was appointed to the Board in January 2009. He joined Legal & General in 1998, since when he has held a variety of divisional finance director roles and has served as Group Financial Controller, Communications and Resources Director, Resources and International Director and UK Service Operations Director. Since 2006, he has been Managing Director, With-profits. Prior to joining Legal & General, he had worked in senior financial and business development roles at companies including Kingfisher Plc and ASDA. Mark qualified as a Chartered Accountant with PWC.

Ken Hogg

Insurance Sector Director, FSA

Biography

Ken joined the FSA in July 2009 after over 20 years in the industry.

Most recently Ken was interim CFO at MGM Advantage. Prior to that he was COO at AIG Life. The earlier part of Ken’s career was spent at Scottish Equitable, and its parent AEGON. This period saw Ken undertake various executive roles including Company Actuary (for European offshore subsidiary), Marketing Director, Director of Industry Development and most recently, leading sales and marketing for AEGON’s Indian JV life company.

Ken is a qualified actuary, and has a 1st class honour’s degree in Actuarial Mathematics and Statistics from HeriotWatt University.

Peter Mann

Chief Executive, Skandia

Biography

Peter, who has over 20 years experience working in Financial Services, joined Bankhall in 2001 as Business Development Director progressing to Managing Director then Chief Executive in August 2005.

Employment history includes: IFA/Pension Director for a large pensions firm in Glasgow and various management roles within Scottish Amicable & Prudential. As top salesman for Scot Am Peter quickly advanced to Sales Director.

As Bankhall CEO, Peter was an active member of the AIFA panel, lobbying the FSA, ombudsman, product providers and other market participants on behalf of Bankhall members. He was also a regular spokesperson on panel debates throughout the industry speaking on key industry topics and ensuring that the voice of Bankhall members and the wider intermediary market was heard.

In 2008, Peter accepted the role as Chief Development Officer within the Skandia UK Group, where he leads the market facing teams – marketing, strategy, sales and communications.

Andrew Fisher

Group Chief Executive, Towry Law

Biography

A City financier by background, Andrew is Chief Executive of Towry Law, Wealth Managers, prior to that he was Chief Executive of Cox Insurance Holdings Plc. He has also been Group Chief Executive of CPP, one of the leading providers of assistance products and services in Europe and was the Group Chief Executive of Coutts Group the Wealth Management business of Royal Bank of Scotland, incorporating Coutts & Co. Coutts International, Nat West Private Bank, Nat West Stockbrokers and the RBS Private Banks. During his earlier career Andrew was a senior advisor to one of the world’s largest private equity group, the Carlyle Group, and a Partner in the Consultancy practice of Coopers and Lybrand.

Ivan Martin

Chairman, Sesame Group

Biography

Ivan's early career was spent in the large US information technology company, Unisys. From 1991 to 1995 he built up and ran the healthcare systems division of ACT Group before ACT was acquired by Misys in April 1995.

Ivan was Chief Executive of a number of Misys software businesses until he was appointed Chief Executive of the financial services division in 1996 (this included the IFA networks and general insurance operation). Ivan led the strategy of consolidation to create the largest distributor of Financial Services in the UK. In 2002 he took over as CEO of Misys Banking Systems, a global software technology business employing 3,000 people and supporting 1,400 financial institutions worldwide and became a member of the Misys plc Board.

Ivan was appointed Chairman of Sesame in June 2007. He is also a member of the AIFA council and was appointed Deputy Chairman of AIFA in October 2008. Ivan is also Chairman of FDM Group plc, an AIM-listed IT training and services company, and a Non Executive Director of 1st The Exchange following the acquisition of a majority stake in the business by Lloyds Developments Capital in August 2009.

Sesame completed the acquisition of Bankhall and PMS in October 2009. The Sesame Bankhall Group is the largest network of IFA's and Mortgage advisers in the UK, the largest support services provider to directly regulated IFA firms and the UK's number one Mortgage Club.

Ivan is a keen golfer and avid rugby union supporter. He is a member of Leicester Tigers RFC and a follower of England rugby.

Andy Brown

Director of Investment Funds, Prudential

Biography

Andy has been in the industry for 20 years and has a broad range of experience with Investment Management Groups, Investment Banks and Product Providers. He has been involved in fund design for a large part of his career having spent the early years in product management and sales roles.

He is particularly involved in creating investment products to suit the changing needs of investors, rather than providing access to another asset class, he believes investors are best suited with funds which meet their specific objectives in a manner which balances risk and reward.

Martin Davis

Chief Executive Officer, Openwork

Biography

Openwork is one of the largest financial advisory firms in the UK, with over 2,500 advisers, writing £300 million of premium in 2008. Prior to Openwork Martin was CEO of Zurich Financial Services’s Global Life Emerging Markets businesses, spanning Asia, South America and Middle Eastern markets. Martin also maintained overall responsibility for Zurich International Life, the offshore subsidiary of ZFS, as Chairman. Martin was also a founding Director or Zurich Takaful.

Previously Martin worked as Commercial Director for Sesame Limited, managing over 7,500 IFAs (25 per cent of the UK market). Martin was also a Board Director of Assureweb.

Before joining Sesame, Martin was Executive Vice President, of Corillian International Ltd and spent eight years working in various business management roles for Reuters plc. Martin also served in the Armed Forces for 10 years, reaching the rank of Captain, in many operational theatres including 5 years with Special Forces. Martin is a Non Executive Director of McKinney Rogers International, a leading strategy consultancy.

David Etherington

Chief Growth Officer, Zurich Financial Services

Biography

David joined the Group in July 2003 and is the Chief Growth Officer, having previously fulfilled the role of Chief Operating Officer for UK Life running Product Management and Development (PMD), Information Systems Solutions and Business Change and Operations. In his time at Zurich he has been the driver of the significant transformation programme turnaround undertaken by the Life Business.

David is currently responsible for Zurich Intermediary Group (ZIG), PMD, Zurich Corporate Pensions (ZCP) and the new build Corporate Risk business launched in February 2009. David has also been heavily involved in the UK Life Finance Transformation Programme as Co Sponsor and Special Matter Projects e.g. the sponsor and director of Treating Customers Fairly (TCF) Programme and successful resolution on several complex Regulatory matters. David is Chairman of the IT Sub Committee and Technical Connection Ltd. David chaired the Investment Committee between 2005 and 2008 undertaking a substantive upgrade in governance and investment reporting. He holds numerous Zurich Directorships at Holding Company and Subsidiary Level.

David has previously undertaken business transformation and development roles for Nat West Group, CLS Bank (FX Global Settlement), bolero.net and UnumProvident. Held positions such as Chief of Staff and Corporate Development Manager when building the largest Bankassurer, NatWest Life, Global Managing Director Operational Risk, NatWest Group, Head of UK Treasury Marketing and Satellite Dealing Rooms, NatWest Markets.

David started his career with ICI plc following their sponsorship of his first degree a BA (Hons) in Business Studies (2:1 with a 1st Class Dissertation). He has an MBA with distinction, Banking Diploma - Chartered Institute of Bankers, MBA Refresher, Chartered Marketer, Lead Assessor – European Foundation for Quality Management, Global Programme for Management Development, IESE/University of Michigan Global Executive Programme: Distinction.

David is an Associate Member of the Institute of Export, Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Financial Services, Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, a Liveryman of The Worshipful Company of World Traders and a Freeman of the City of London. He is also a Life Member of the International Association of Business Leaders and is listed in Who’s Who of Professionals. David is married with two daughters.

David joined the Group in July 2003 and is the Chief Growth Officer, having previously fulfilled the role of Chief Operating Officer for UK Life running Product Management and Development (PMD), Information Systems Solutions and Business Change and Operations. In his time at Zurich he has been the driver of the significant transformation programme turnaround undertaken by the Life Business.

David is currently responsible for Zurich Intermediary Group (ZIG), PMD, Zurich Corporate Pensions (ZCP) and the new build Corporate Risk business launched in February 2009. David has also been heavily involved in the UK Life Finance Transformation Programme as Co Sponsor and Special Matter Projects e.g. the sponsor and director of Treating Customers Fairly (TCF) Programme and successful resolution on several complex Regulatory matters. David is Chairman of the IT Sub Committee and Technical Connection Ltd. David chaired the Investment Committee between 2005 and 2008 undertaking a substantive upgrade in governance and investment reporting. He holds numerous Zurich Directorships at Holding Company and Subsidiary Level.

David has previously undertaken business transformation and development roles for Nat West Group, CLS Bank (FX Global Settlement), bolero.net and UnumProvident. Held positions such as Chief of Staff and Corporate Development Manager when building the largest Bankassurer, NatWest Life, Global Managing Director Operational Risk, NatWest Group, Head of UK Treasury Marketing and Satellite Dealing Rooms, NatWest Markets.

David started his career with ICI plc following their sponsorship of his first degree a BA (Hons) in Business Studies (2:1 with a 1st Class Dissertation). He has an MBA with distinction, Banking Diploma - Chartered Institute of Bankers, MBA Refresher, Chartered Marketer, Lead Assessor – European Foundation for Quality Management, Global Programme for Management Development, IESE/University of Michigan Global Executive Programme: Distinction.

David is a: Associate Member of the Institute of Export, Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Financial Services, Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, a Liveryman of The Worshipful Company of World Traders and a Freeman of the City of London. He is also a Life Member of the International Association of Business Leaders and is listed in Who’s Who of Professionals. David is married with two daughters.

Richard Verdin

Protection Director, Aviva

Biography

Richard started his career in financial services practising as an IFA for 10 years. In 1998 he joined Legal & General where he stayed at for 4 years undertaking a number of roles including Director of Mortgage & Protection Markets and IFA Sales Director for Protection. During 2002 Richard moved to Direct Life & Pension Services as Sales & Marketing Director and following the successful sale of the business during 2008 he decided to join Aviva as Protection Director. Richard is the Chairman of the Protection Strategy Committee at the ABI.

Adrian Boulding

Pensions Strategy Director, Legal & General

Biography

Adrian Boulding is Legal & General’s Pensions Strategy Director with responsibility for analysing and understanding the implications of major legislative change for consumers of pension and savings products.

Currently he is engaged in the industry wide consultations on the Government’s proposed new system of automatic enrolment and mandatory employer pension contributions that will be launched in 2012. He is particularly interested in the impact on group schemes and how employers will react to get maximum value from their pension contributions.

Adrian is a widely quoted commentator on savings issues in the press and provides strategic advice to several industry trade bodies.

Outside of work, Adrian both makes and shoots the traditional long-bow and is a collector of classic Jaguar motor cars.

Nick Dixon

Marketing Director, Skandia

Biography

After studying PPE at Oxford University, Nick joined Shell Oil in 1987. Roles included restructuring the UK retail network and assessing gas investments in Russia and Nigeria.

In 1996 Nick gained an MBA from Columbia Business School, New York. He then joined strategy consultant Booz & Co where he worked until 2002, managing assignments in the energy sector. Clients included: Monsanto, Exxon Mobil, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, and ABB.

Nick has worked at Skandia UK since 2002, first as Head of Strategy and more recently as Marketing Director.

David Stuart

Director of Investment Advice and Products, Barclays

Biography

David Stuart joined Barclays in 2005 after 8 years in a wide variety of roles at the FSA. At Barclays he has run compliance functions across both Barclays Wealth and the Retail Bank before taking up his current role in charge of investment advice and products for Barclays Financial Planning. Over the past year he has introduced a number of initiatives to optimise the business model - from improved targeting of the product proposition and the introduction of portfolio management tools through to the creation of new channels for advice. David lives in Surrey with his wife and young son.

Jamie Jenkins

Head, Corporate Strategy & Proposition, Standard Life

Biography

Jenkins has worked in financial services for over 20 years, most of which he has spent in the Corporate Pensions area.

He currently heads up the Strategy & Propositions team for pensions, savings, flexible benefits and healthcare. He has worked extensively on the development of Standard Life’s employee wealth proposition

Prior to his move to Marketing, he led the pensions operation, steering the area through Simplification and establishing the Corporate SIPP function, ultimately working with some of the largest pension clients in the UK.

Jenkins is a regular commentator on developments in the corporate market.

Mark Polson

Head of Customer Management, Standard Life

Biography

Mark Polson is Head of Customer Management for Standard Life's affluent customers and also heads up communications for the company's investment platforms.

Mark joined Standard Life in 2007 after stints at Scottish Life where he was Head of Corporate Business, Virgin Money and Scottish Widows. Mark has a particular focus on the advisory market and considerable experience in working with advisers to transition their businesses towards sustainable models in both the retail and corporate markets.

Outside of work he enjoys rugby, theatre, film and is not quite as good a guitar player as he thinks he is.

Nick Johnson

Head of Defined Benefit Risk Management, Aviva

Biography

Nick is a qualified actuary with over 15 years' pensions experience in both consulting and insurance company environments. He joined Aviva four years ago to develop a Bulk Purchase Annuity offering and now heads up the wider Defined Benefit Risk Management department, taking overall responsibility for developing and delivering an end-to-end solution for trustees and sponsoring employers who wish to manage their defined benefit pension scheme risk. He is keen to ensure that small to medium size schemes have access to the more innovative and service driven solutions that are emerging for the larger end of this market.

Maggie Craig

Director of Life and Savings, ABI

Biography

Maggie Craig joined the ABI in July 2007, from Standard Life Assurance Ltd. Maggie had two stints at Standard Life, as Head of Pensions Policy from 1989-2000 and as Head of Public Affairs and Communication from 2003-2007. In between, she was Pensions Development Manager for Scottish Equitable. All these roles involved a wide variety of lobbying, policy and media work.

Maggie has been in financial services since graduating from Glasgow University in 1979. She has worked for an employee benefits consultancy, as an IFA and on secondment to the Department of Work and Pensions, as well as for Standard Life and Scottish Equitable. Her knowledge and experience of financial services and pensions policy issues is extensive.

Maggie has put that experience to excellent use on several ABI committees and working groups, and she represented the ABI as a member of Alan Pickering’s pensions simplification review team. She has also contributed to many other legislative and regulatory consultations, including the Pensions Act 1995 and the FSA’s Treating Customers Fairly.

Maggie is married with three daughters and a variety of animals.

Fiona Tait

Pensions Development Manager, Scottish Life

Biography

Probably best known as “Steve Bee’s warm up act” Fiona has been stepping out on her own during 2009, delivering over 80 seminars to IFAs and their professional introducers.

Fiona joined Scottish Life in March 2004. She spent the first 12 months touring the UK before taking time out to give birth to baby Robert and a new drawdown product for Scottish Life. The jury is still out on which was more painful, but she is glad to report that both are healthy and showing phenomenal growth. She is now back out on the road and looking forward to more train travel....

Michael Johnson

Research Fellow, Centre for Policy Studies

Biography

Michael Johnson is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Policy Studies and a Director of Embrace Success Ltd, specialising in the field of coaching and cultural change. He has been responsible for the running of David Cameron’s Economic Competitiveness Policy Group reporting to Shadow Cabinet in Q3 2007, and has previously worked at Tillinghast Towers Perrin as a Senior Consultant, and HSBC as a Director of Structured Capital Markets. Michael is a school governor, and runs what is probably the largest state primary school fund in the UK. He was a founding shareholder of New Energy Finance (just sold to Bloomberg), the world's leading provider of analysis to investors in renewable energy, biofuels, low-carbon technologies and the carbon markets, a member of a hedge fund Advisory Board, and a practitioner of NLP (applied psychology).

Reinder van Dijk

Managing Consultant, Oxera

Biography

Reinder’s areas of expertise are competition policy and regulation, with more than ten years of experience in the financial services sector. He has advised companies such as MasterCard, The Royal Bank of Scotland, Aviva and Interpay (now Equens). He has also managed projects for trade associations including the Association of British Insurers, British Bankers’ Association, Association of Payment Clearing Services, the Finance & Leasing Association, and the Futures and Options Association, in addition to government bodies such as the Financial Services Authority, the Office of Fair Trading and the European Commission. In the field of competition policy, he has worked with a range of clients on mergers (eg, Fortis–ABN AMRO and VocaLink), agreements, abuse of dominance and state aid cases in Europe, Latin America and the Middle East. He has worked on studies in various segments of the financial services sector including investment management and brokerage, trading, clearing and settlement of securities, retail insurance, banking, consumer credit, mortgages, payment systems, and pensions. Before joining Oxera in April 2001, he worked as an economist at the Netherlands Central Bank and the Mexican Federal Competition Commission.

Kim Lerche-Thomsen

Chief Executive, Living Time

Biography

Kim Lerche-Thomsen is CEO and founder of Living Time, a financial services company which was set up to provide much needed innovation to the retirement income market.

Prior to founding Living Time, Kim spent most of his career at Prudential where early pensions actuarial roles were followed by general management positions.

He set up and managed Prudential Annuities growing it to become the largest annuity provider in the UK. He subsequently expanded Prudential Annuities operations into the bulk buyout market, establishing it as one of the leading players.

Kim then became Chief Executive of Scottish Amicable and led its integration into the Prudential. After leaving Prudential he became Chairman of a managed assets company and then set up Living Time.

Steve Groves

Chief Executive, Partnership

Biography

Most of Steve’s career has been spent working on financial solutions for people in retirement. He started at Norwich Union working on long-term care and equity release, before moving into the investment area. His interest in annuities and annuitant longevity led to a move to Stalwart (now part of LV=) where he worked on equity release, smoker annuities and the launch of Impaired Life pension and Long Term Care annuities before joining Britannic Retirement Solutions.

In early 2003, Steve took a role leading the actuarial team as part of Swiss Re’s Admin Re start up where he led the pricing on the acquisition of Windsor Life, Zurich Life and Virgin Money Life.

In March 2005 he joined the Pension Annuity Friendly Society, the first provider of impaired and Care annuities in the UK, as its Chief Finance Officer. Later that year the Society became the first friendly society in recent memory to demutualise and this formed Partnership. Steve took over as Managing Director in November 2006 and took the role of Chief Executive following a secondary buyout backed by Cinven in August 2008.

Steve is a founder member of the Institute of Actuaries working party on equity release and has been a Director of SHIP, the equity release trade body.

Dominic Grinstead

Managing Director UK, Metlife

Biography

Dominic Grinstead was appointed Managing Director of MetLife UK in May 2009. In this role, he is responsible for leading a growing team focussing on the strategy, product distribution, marketing business development, and distribution.

Prior to this Dominic was Strategic Development and Marketing Director. In this role he was responsible for leading a refresh of the company’s product portfolio leading to the highly successful launch of Retirement Portfolio and Guaranteed Investment Bond.

Dominic has 25 years experience in the UK Financial Services Industry specialising in sales, marketing and product technical roles. Prior to joining MetLife in 2005 he was Head of National Sales at Clerical Medical responsible for the Intermediary Sales Function.

Dave Lowe

Pensions Management Director, Zurich Life

Biography

Dave Lowe is Zurich's Pensions Management Director. He has responsibility for the retail and corporate pensions propositions from development and then on through the customer life cycle.

Dave has been with Zurich four years and was previously at National Mutual and GE Life where he was responsible at one time or another for SIPPs, Drawdowns and general pensions product development - ending his time with GE Life as Head of Marketing and Head of Strategy.

Kate Smith

Pensions Development Consultant, AEGON

Biography

Kate joined AEGON in August 2006 having worked for a number of pension organisations, including PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and Mercers HR Consulting, and has over 20 years of experience in the pensions industry.

Kate is currently focusing on the changing pension environment and what this will look like in the run-up to and beyond 2012 following the implementation of Pensions Reform and other regulatory initiatives. Kate’s emphasis is lobbying for good outcomes for customers and ‘workable’ regulation for smaller employers.

Kate is a Fellow of the Pensions Management Institute (PMI) and is the Treasurer of the PMI Scottish Regional Group. She is a member of an ABI committee and represents AEGON on the Defined Contribution sub-group of the Investment Governance Group.

Vanessa Owen

Head of Equity Release and Technical Services, LV=

Biography

Head of Equity Release and Technical Services Vanessa Owen joined LV= in 1997 where she has held senior management positions in compliance, IFA support and latterly in the life and pensions product development function.

Vanessa joined LV= from Woolwich Independent Financial Advisory Service where she qualified as an IFA in the City of London and went on to join the panel research team. Before that she was branch manager for Woolwich Building Society.

Vanessa is a qualified member of the Personal Finance Society, and member of the ABI Consumer Strategy Committee.

John Lawson

Head of Pensions Policy, Standard Life Group

Biography

John Lawson is one of the pension industry’s leading spokespeople. He provides incisive and informed comment to all sections of the media using the insight and expertise he has built up over more than 20 years. His current role also includes influencing UK, European and Asian governments on savings policy issues, both on behalf of Standard Life and as a representative of the UK insurance industry. John is a Fellow of the Personal Finance Society.

Nigel Barlow

Head of Retirement Income Solutions, Just Retirement

Biography

Nigel Barlow is 48 years old and for the past 27 years, has worked in a variety of roles in financial services covering pensions, investments and equity release, including 4 years as Head of Research with an IFA organisation. He has been with Just Retirement since its launch in 2004 and is currently responsible for research to support development of products to meet the needs of those in retirement. A frequent contributor to debates and articles in the press, he is an Associate of the Personal Finance Society.

Will Mowatt

Director, Mowatt Financial Planning

Biography

Will established Mowatt Financial Planning in October 2009 to provide professional independent financial advice to individuals and business owners. Will has broad experience in the financial services industry having started out as an actuary with Scottish Widows and then later being Director of Marketing with Norwich Union (now Aviva).

While at Norwich Union Will developed some innovative new propositions targeted at the retirement market. The work was founded on customer research which recognised the issues that customers have when dealing with financial advisers and product providers.

Through this work Will felt that the real power to help customers lay with the financial adviser and this was the springboard to setting up as an independent financial adviser. Will is qualified at Diploma level as an adviser.

Steven Haberman

Professor of Actuarial Science, Cass Business School

Biography

Steve Haberman graduated in mathematics from the University of Cambridge, qualifying as a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries in 1975, and subsequently obtained his PhD and DSc in actuarial science from City University.

He has worked at Prudential Assurance and for the Government Actuary’s Department, and has been a member of the Council of the Institute of Actuaries. He is a member of the Financial Reporting Council’s Board of Actuarial Standards, the Association of British Insurers’ Research Advisory Panel and Legal and General’s Longevity Science Advisory Panel.

Edward Stuart-Brown

Head of Sales, Friends Provident

Biography

Having qualified as a Mining Engineer Ed worked in the South African gold and platinum mines before returning to the UK to embark on a second career in the Life Assurance industry. Ed joined Friends Provident as part of the original team that set up and ran the direct sales force.

Although Ed has a wide range of experience across the industry his focus and passion remains on life assurance and the protection needs of customers because as he comments:

“It is the foundation of every aspect of good financial planning and one where the customer for a relatively modest out lay can protect themselves and their families from potential financial ruin. Why wouldn't you be passionate about that?”

He is now responsible for all protection sales across Friends Provident.

Roger A Soppe

Director, Global Insurance Strategy, Oracle

Biography

Roger A. Soppe, CLU, LUTCF, is the Director of Global Insurance Strategy for Oracle Insurance. He has more than 20 years of experience in the insurance industry, managing strategy, sales services and marketing. Soppe joined Oracle following the company's acquisition of AdminServer in 2008. He previously held leadership and sales positions at StoneRiver (Fiserv Insurance Solutions) and Prudential Insurance.

Paul Yates

Strategy and Business Development Director, 1st- The Exchange

Biography

Paul has over 20 years of experience designing and delivering innovative technology solutions for the distribution of financial services. His proven strategy and business development experience has seen him help build and manage a range of technology and financial services businesses.

Paul joined The Exchange in 2004 from Misys PLC where he held the position of Sales Technology Director of Sesame. Prior to joining Misys, he was Associate Director at CMG. Paul was recruited to develop and execute The Exchange's business strategy, leading to the acquisition of 1st in 2006.

Martin McKenna

Lead Business Consultant, Focus Solutions

Biography

Martin McKenna is Lead Business Consultant of Focus Solutions, the leading provider of multi-channel distribution solutions and supporting services to the financial services industry. A highly experienced Financial Services professional, Martin has held strategic roles at Bankhall / Sesame, Abbey and Royal & SunAlliance as well as previously operating as an IFA.

Within his role at Focus, Martin is a key figure in shaping the organisation’s thinking on new product development and how to respond to the evolving industry landscape, as well as providing advice and support to clients as they undergo strategic technology implementations.

Martin regularly spends time understanding the current and future needs of Focus’ blue chip clients such as HSBC, Prudential, Barclays and Tenet as well as drafting white papers on the key issues impacting the financial services distribution landscape.

Mark Joannes

Commercial Actuary, MGM Advantage

Biography

Mark is a qualified actuary and currently the Commercial Actuary at MGM Advantage where his role encompasses pricing, product development and business development in the retirement product field. Most recently he has been heavily involved in developing and launching their new asset backed annuity, the Flexible Income Annuity.

For 8 years prior to joining MGM, Mark was a strategy consultant at Watson Wyatt, specialising in the retirement market and working with many UK life offices and new start up companies, helping them to develop their strategy in the retirement market and developing new and innovative products.

Bruno Geiringer

Partner, Pinsent Masons

Biography

Bruno is a Partner in the Insurance team and leads our life insurance practice, acting for proprietary and mutual life insurance companies, reinsurers, intermediaries, retail distributors, bancassurers and friendly societies.

With over 20 years experience in financial services law and regulation, including as a director and "approved person" of a life company, Bruno has firsthand knowledge about the legal risks prevalent in the life industry and has been individually recognised as having "considerable experience on the life insurance side" in the UK Legal 500 Directory, 2009 edition.

Bruno has experience in court approved transfers of life and pensions insurance businesses under Part VII FSMA, friendly society mergers, insurance restructuring, distribution and white-labelling agreements, FSA regulation, reinsurance product development and advising wrap/corporate platform operators.

Bruno has been a regular commentator on the FSA's Retail Distribution Review and is a regular contributor to Complinet, the online industry and news and analysis service for risk and compliance professionals in financial services.

Sanjay Mohan

AVP - Insurance, Infosys

Biography

Sanjay Mohan joined Infosys Technologies Ltd in 2000 and is Assoc. Vice President of the Insurance Practice. He leads a team of professionals who develop insurance solutions impacting time to market of products and improving return on investments in large initiatives. As part of this role, he also manages strategic client relationships in the market. Sanjay has 17 years of experience in the industry and has written for leading Insurance publications in the US on topics ranging from governance on program spend to adoption of new technologies in the insurance industry.

Sanjay has a master of business administration from the Indian Institute of Management and is currently pursuing the Executive Scholar program at Kellogg Graduate School of Management.

Giles Elliott

Global Head of Brand and Communications, Skandia

Biography

Giles Elliott is Head of Marketing for Skandia in the UK, and Chief Marketing Officer for the Skandia Group. He has been at Skandia for five years.

Prior to joining Skandia he has worked for independent marketing communications agencies, including his own company for 16 years In that time he has worked at board level with clients among them PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Eurotunnel, Motorola, the UK Cabinet Office and a number of Financial Services companies including Skandia, Gartmore and Invesco Perpetual.

At Skandia UK Giles runs the Marketing Services function, with a team of 45 people forming an ‘internal agency’. The team are responsible for all literature, PR, e-marketing, sponsorship, events, advertising and direct marketing, in not only the UK but for the offshore markets in the Group. Giles is also responsible for the Skandia brand internationally.

Glenn Lottering

Senior Director, EMEA Insurance, Oracle Corporation

Biography

Glenn Lottering is Senior Director for Oracle Insurance in EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa EMEA), with responsibility for business development and the creation of Oracle Insurance’s EMEA business plan. He is one of Oracle’s lead strategist for Solvency II and a global client advisor for top tier accounts.

Lottering speaks regularly on the EMEA conference circuit, addressing topics ranging from Solvency II to claims management. In the past year, Lottering has chaired international conferences on Distribution Management and Bancassurance, as well as the Cost reduction Stream of Marketforce’s Future of General Assurance last November.

Lottering joined Oracle in 1999 to set up the CRM business unit in South Africa. Prior to coming to Oracle, He worked 25 years in financial services, split equally between roles in South Africa and Europe, and has been involved for 12 years in IT.