About Us

Ian Brimecome was appointed Chairman in September 2009. He joined the Board in January 2007 and is Chairman of the Nominations Committee. Ian is Chairman of Axa UK plc, Kiln Group Ltd, Delphi Financial Group and Tokio Marine North America. He is also Executive Chairman International of Tokio Marine Holdings, Deputy Chairman of Tokio Marine Asia and a non-executive director of Tokio Millennium Re UK Ltd. Ian is an outside Board Member of Philadelphia Consolidated Holdings in the United States. He has more than 30 years of experience of the financial services industry in a wide variety of roles and has advised on more than 100 merger and acquisition transactions in the insurance and asset management industries in more than 20 countries.

Chris Wiscarson was appointed Chief Executive in September 2009. He was previously at the Lloyds Banking Group where he held very senior roles on the Group Executive Committee — most recently Group Integration Director. He started his career with Equitable Life, before moving to South Africa in 1979 as General Manager of Southern Life. In 1986, he returned to England to take up the position of Chief Executive of Save & Prosper Insurance. In 1990, he became European Director of the Lloyds Abbey Life Group and, in 1991, took up the position of Group Finance Director before becoming Chief Executive of Lloyds TSB Life. At the beginning of 2000, Chris took responsibility for the non-UK businesses in the Lloyds TSB Group, participating in 30 countries.

Keith Nicholson joined the Board in August 2009. He was appointed Deputy Chairman on 1 July 2012 and chairs the Audit and Risk Committee. Keith left KPMG in 2009 after more than 30 years with the firm. He has a wealth of experience with financial services companies covering audit and advisory roles. These included FTSE 100 companies in the UK and non-UK multinationals. Keith is Chairman of Liberty Syndicate Management Limited and Deputy Chairman of Wesleyan Assurance Society. He is also a non-executive Director of Wesleyan Financial Services Limited, Liberty Corporate Capital Limited and Liberty Syndicate Services Limited. Keith has also served on the Auditing Practices Board and on the Insurance Subcommittee of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

Ian Reynolds, a Chartered Director and qualified actuary, joined the Board in October 2006. He is a non-executive Director of  Alternative Assets Opportunities. He served ten years on the Council of the Institute of Actuaries. Ian has more than 40 years of experience in the insurance industry. He held the roles of UK Divisional Director and then General Manager Life at Commercial Union plc and a variety of posts at Royal Insurance. He has also worked as an insurance Special Advisor at the Financial Services Authority.

Cathryn Riley joined the Board in August 2009. She chairs the Remuneration Committee. She is Group Chief Operations Officer at Aviva plc after having served in a number of executive roles within the Aviva Group. In a wide-ranging career covering human resources, customer services, IT, operations and general management , Cathryn has worked for British Coal, British Airways, Coopers & Lybrand and BUPA before joining Aviva in 1996.

Simon Small joined the Society as Finance Director in July 2012. He is responsible for the Society’s Finance, IT, Business Change and Investment functions, as well as taking a lead role in capital and strategic planning. Simon, a qualified accountant, had previously been working at Lloyds Banking Group for over 20 years. Simon has particular expertise in the financial and administrative aspects of operations and IT. Over the last few years, he has been the Finance Director to the team responsible for delivering the synergy benefits in the merger of Lloyds TSB and HBOS. Prior to that he has led finance teams in a number of Lloyds Banking Group  businesses where he has negotiated deals, restructured company finances and delivered efficiency savings. Simon has represented Lloyds on trade bodies and as a non-executive Director on a joint venture.