Member's Details

Click on a member's name for more information (if available).

Mike Benton

Mike Benton has worked in the life and health insurance industry for over 25 years. He has been chief executive officer at Medicals Direct Group since 1997, prior to which he was sales & marketing director of IGI Insurance Company and previously managing director of the Permanent Health Company Limited. From 1989 to 1992 he was sales & marketing director of Prosperity Life Insurance Company.

In addition to his extensive knowledge of the life and health insurance markets, Mike also has a wealth of experience in the non-life general insurance sector. He has, probably uniquely, held senior posts in all aspects of the business, covering sales, marketing, administration and underwriting functions. Mike is a regular speaker at industry seminars and is an authority on medical outsourcing for both the insurance and legal industries.

Steve Casey

Steve is responsible for product design & marketing for BUPA Health Assurance, the long term life Co distributing products to the IFA market.

With over 20 years experience in Financial Services, he has undertaken a number of senior roles at Swiss Re Life & Health and Liberata including account development, marketing and superior customer service.

Graeme Charters

Andrew Couchman

A well-known writer and author, he appears regularly in the trade press, speaks at conferences and produces written materials for and advises a wide range of organisations. Co-author of the Protection Review (with Peter Le Beau), Andy edits the monthly HealthCare Insurance Report newsletter and writes the product reviews for Health Insurance magazine.

Prior to setting up his own business he held senior product marketing roles in the industry and holds the FCII and Cert PFS qualifications.

Outside of business and family, Andy's interests include fast cars and guitars.

Helen Crofts

As a qualified actuary Helen spent the first 20 years of her career in life insurance and reinsurance. At Swiss Re she was Marketing Actuary and Business Development Manager for UK clients, before joining XL Re as Chief Actuary for the life reinsurance startup. Moving to Bermuda, she joined Scottish Re’s offshore team, and remains involved with the International business back in the UK, to ensure she doesn’t lose touch with her technical roots. Returning home in 2006 with a young family, she felt the time was right for a change in direction, and so joined insurance sector specialist executive search company ejsSearch to spearhead the development of the Life and Health Practice. Helen has strong links with the Institute of Actuaries, having organized and chaired a number of their conferences and seminars.

www.ejssearch.com

Ian Etheridge

Ian is Head of Client Management UK & Ireland at Swiss Re.

Ian Etheridge has over 20 years experience within the reinsurance industry having started with M&G Re, who were then subsequently acquired by Swiss Re in 1996. Ian has undertaken a number of senior positions at Swiss Re Life & Health including; marketing, client management, business development, underwriting and customer service roles.

Veronica France

Andrew Gething

Andrew is the Managing Director of MorganAsh having founded the company in 2004. Through rapid growth MorganAsh is now the leading Tele-underwriting provider in the UK and Ireland. Andrew is highly successful entrepreneur who has taken an IT start-up through growth and profitability to successful acquisition, increasing shareholder value by 35,000%, and floated a private computer games company on the London Stock Exchange. Andrew is a UMIST graduate, a Chartered Structural Engineer and holds an MBA from Sheffield Business School.

David Heeney

David Heeney is Scottish Re’s Chief Marketing Officer for UK & Ireland.

Scottish Re is a specialist life reinsurer with a global platform. They are one of the top life reinsurers in the United States and among the top 10 worldwide. While a relative newcomer to the UK and Irish markets, Scottish Re has established strong relationships with key market players bringing a fresh approach to reinsurance solutions with a clear focus on customer service at all stages in the insurance value chain.

David has over 20 years of insurance and reinsurance market experience. He began his career with Legal & General where he qualified as an actuary in 1988. During his 11 years with Legal & General he held a wide range of actuarial and general management positions including Head of Pensions Marketing.

He joined Swiss Re in 1995 where he spent 10 years predominantly in global product management roles specialising in product design and risk management of disability, critical illness and other health products. He also spent 2 years as a Global Client Manager responsible for Head Office relationships with some of Swiss Re’s largest international clients.

David retains a strong interest in health insurance and is Chairman of the CMI Critical Illness Committee.

Ben Heffer

Ben is a member of Defaqto’s Insight Team with responsibility for writing and consultancy on life and protection products. Working for Defaqto since it’s inception in 1994, he has 18 years’ of experience in financial services having previously worked for Countrywide Independent Advisers and Bradford & Bingley Building Society. During his time at Defaqto, Ben has held research and data management positions in pensions, investments and life assurance. More recently, he has been responsible for conducting independent IFA satisfaction studies and providing commentary on life office service.

Scott Levy

Scott Levy has developed an unique understanding of the international financial services market and its varied needs. His work has been with investment banks, fund managers, retail banks and life & pensions companies, around both the developed and developing world. As a consultant and service provider, he has held most major positions in specialist companies including CEO, CFO, CIO, and run business development and international marketing programmes. Across a wide range of product areas, Scott has been instrumental in developing award winning solutions for companies using the latest technologies.

Scott Levy has operated at all levels of business and technical users to ensure deliveries are consistent with the business goals in more than 15 countries. Many of the projects have been with blue chip companies like Bear Stearns, SocGen, Swiss Re, Allianz, Fortis, Credit Suisse, IBM, Siemens, and Accenture.

www.productinnovations.co.uk

Karin Lloyd

After 24 years in Underwriting and Claims in the direct market and as a reinsurer, Karin branched out on her own in 2006. Karin has since worked for companies based in the US, UK and Australia on a variety of projects including the development of an auditing framework, operational reviews, assisting a new life company and developing training materials.

http://www.karinlloyd.com

Alan Newman

Alan Newman is a director of Quadrant 4 Limited, a management consultancy that specialises in innovation. Most of the company’s clients come from the financial services sector. Alan has written for FT Finance and The Journal of Brand Management and has contributed to one of Swiss Re’s annual Insurance Reports. It was a Swiss Re conference where he observed that, “Insurance was a left-brained industry headed for a right-brained century” - a phrase that has been widely quoted since. He has a degree in Psychology from UCL and attended the International Advanced Management Programme at INSEAD. He has worked in Africa and the Middle East as well as the UK.

David Shelton

David Shelton is Head of Intermediary Strategic Planning at Clerical Medical with responsibility for supporting IFAs in the development of their long term business and marketing plans. He has facilitated over 200 business consultancy workshops and developed the associated plans for a wide variety of IFA practices.

In addition, David supports a wide range of business and marketing planning activities within the company and has written many articles and speaks at conferences on the development of the life and pensions industry, with particular regard to distribution, branding, communications and corporate strategy. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and a member of the Market Research Society.

Prior to this David was Head of Marketing Operations with responsibility for the effective operation of the market research, marketing communications, sales development, marketing production, direct and database marketing departments. Before joining Clerical Medical in 1987 he was a lecturer in marketing and business strategy at the Bristol Business School, University of the West of England.

David is married with two children, aged 22 and 25 and lives in Bristol. He enjoys cross country walking and swimming.

Malcolm Small

With a background in Law, Heavy Engineering, and public Administration, Malcolm has specialised in all aspects of management in Financial Services at senior level for the last 20 years. Classically trained in marketing at Marketing Centre Europe in Brussels, he has also operated as a Marketing Director in I.T., preparing software applications for market and following through to product delivery. He spent 14 years with Norwich Union, latterly at operating Board level in Life and Pensions, and 5 years at Merchant Investors, a specialist high net worth investment and pension provider in Bristol.

More recently, as Managing Director of Lyncombe Consultancy, he has specialised in the regulatory, technical and operational aspects of pensions, and a wide range of other retail financial services. With a particular interest in, and experience of, Distribution in the UK, he has been involved in a number of initiatives building new businesses in this field. A past Chair of the Investment and Life Assurance Group, a practitioner trade body, he also has a strong presence in public affairs and public policy work. He is a frequent speaker, and author, on industry topics, Chairing a wide range of industry meetings and conferences.

Malcolm has undertaken research in pensions through The Pensions Report and is Chairman of The-Pensions-Net-Work; a membership based standing conference in the Net-Work series.

He is Director of Portfolio and Retirement Planning at the Tax Incentivised Savings Association, leading the work of the Association in Pensions, Distribution and Platforms. He is also a Non-Executive Director of B&CE Insurance, provider of pensions and financial services to the construction industry.

In addition he is a Senior Policy Adviser on Pensions at the Institute of Directors and a member of the Advisory Council at The Pensions Regulator.

Relevant web links:
www.iod.com
www.tisa.uk.com
www.lyncombeconsultancy.com
www.the-pensions-net-work.com

Clive Waller

Clive held positions in sales and marketing over 25 years with Scottish Amicable and Zurich Insurance. He was Investment Sales Manager and Sales Director at Zurich Life and Group Director at ZIFA. He became Managing Partner of the Training Design Studio in 1999, writing and delivering training programmes on taxation, pensions and investment. At the same time, he set up the specialised research-based consultancy, CWC Research, with his wife, Monica, to provide data and advice to insurers, fund managers and specialist consultancies.

Clive is well known for his work in the platform sector, especially the publishing of detailed research studies. He part wrote and published the first book on platforms, “The adviser guide to platforms and the provision of advice.” He conceived of and promoted the first major platform industry event, “The Adnitor UK platform awards in association with CWC Research.”

Clive has an MBA from Wolsey Hall Oxford, with distinction, and is an associate of the Personal Finance Society.

He is a regular feature writer and speaker at industry events.

www.cwcresearch.co.uk