Meet the Board

The MGM Board of Directors is responsible for setting MGM Advantage’s business strategy and making sure the business is run efficiently, legally and, above all, for the benefit of MGM’s members and policyholders.

Sir William Proby

Chair and Non Executive Director

Sir William was elected as a Non Executive Director of the Society in July 2006.  He became Chair in December 2007. He has a strong background in the city having started his career as a Chartered Accountant with Price Waterhouse & Co., moving on to Morgan Grenfell & Co. where he specialised in corporate tax planning and mergers and acquisitions.

During the 1980’s, Sir William became Chief Executive of MWP Ltd, an associate company of Morgan Grenfell. He has a long association and deep interest in the nation’s heritage having served as the President of the Historic Houses Association and as Chair of The National Trust from 2003 to 2008.

Sir William is a Trustee of the National Portrait Gallery, Chair of DBS Building Group Limited and a trustee of Howard de Walden Estates.

He is a member of the Remuneration and Nomination Committee. Although Sir William is not an official member of the Audit, Investment and With-Profits Committees of MGM Advantage he also regularly attends the meetings of these committees.

 

Chris Evans

Chief Executive

Chris Evans spent 20 years with Prudential plc, where he became Managing Director of Prudential Holborn, the UK IFA distribution business. He then joined the board of Prudential Corporation Asia, serving as Managing Director of Prudential’s Thailand business and finally, he launched a new continental European operating unit, Prudential Europe.

After leaving Prudential in 2002, Chris spent three years working for HBOS Europe Financial Services and then for Mercer Human Resource Consulting, where he was Chief Executive of their Employee Benefits, Retirement Solutions and Benefits Outsourcing business.

Since Chris became CEO of MGM in 2007, the Company has re-launched itself as an innovative specialist retirement income provider serving customers through the IFA channel.

Chris is a member of the Investment, With Profits and the Remuneration and Nomination (for nomination matters only) Committees.

 

Craig Fazzini-Jones

Chief Operating Officer

Craig joined MGM Advantage as a director and a member of the Executive team in 2008 with responsibility for Designs for Retirement – the division of MGM Advantage created to establish the Society in the retirement income market. In 2011 he was appointed as Chief Operating Officer with additional responsibility for Human Resources, Customer Service, IT and project delivery.

Craig has a strong background in the life and pensions and retail banking industry with specific experience in the annuity market.

Before joining MGM Advantage, Craig worked for Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) where he was senior director of Retail Strategy (Europe & North America). Craig also held other senior roles at HBOS including Head of Bancassurance Operations and Head of Bank of Scotland Annuity Service (BoSAS), where he managed the largest UK annuity broker.

Craig is a member of the Risk Committee.

 

Simon Whitehead

Chief Financial Officer

Simon Whitehead joined the Executive Team and Board as Chief Financial Officer in September 2011. He is responsible for the finance and investment functions at MGM Advantage.

He was previously Chief Executive of Partnership Assurance, the pension annuity and long term care insurer. Simon has held many senior finance roles including Prudential Annuities, Bank of Ireland Mortgages and the Automobile Association. He qualified as a Chartered Accountant at KPMG where he specialised in financial services. Simon is also a non-executive director of Better Retirement Group Ltd.

Simon is a member of the Investment Committee.

 

David Gulland

Chief Risk Officer

David Gulland joined the Executive Team and Board as Chief Risk Officer in September 2011. He is responsible for the actuarial, compliance and risk management functions at MGM Advantage.

David moved to MGM Advantage from Reinsurance Group of America’s (“RGA”) UK and Irish business, where he was Managing Director. Prior to joining RGA, David was an Associate Partner of the Actuarial and Insurance Solutions business at Deloitte. He has extensive experience within the UK life insurance industry having worked with a diverse portfolio of clients. This experience has involved numerous statutory roles as Actuarial Function Holder and Reviewing Actuary, as well as providing strategic advice to boards on corporate transactions, product development and the implications of regulatory change.

David is a member of the Risk Committee and the With Profits Committee

 

Laurie Edmans, CBE

Deputy Chair and Non Executive Director

Laurie joined MGM Advantage as a non-executive Director in March 2008. In his executive career he was general manager of the UK pensions and employee benefits business of a major multinational insurer, deputy chief executive of a specialist pensions provider and then director of corporate development at AEGON UK plc.

He is now the non-executive Chair of the Trinity Mirror Pension Plan Trustees, of Safe Home Income Plans group and of B-different Limited, a leading financial services market research company. He is also a non-executive director of the Money Advice Service, a trustee member of the National Employment Savings Trust (‘NEST’), and a trustee of two charities – The Quest School for Autistic Children and the National Family and Parenting Institute, where he is treasurer. He is a Council member of the Pensions Policy Institute.

Formerly, Laurie was a board member of the Pensions Regulator and chaired the Pensions Committee of the ABI. He was appointed CBE for services to pensions reform in 2006.

Laurie is Chairman of the Remuneration and Nominations Committee and a member of the Investment and Risk committees.

 

Brian Harrison

Non Executive Director

Brian was appointed as non executive director of MGM Advantage on 1 November 2011. He has over 30 years experience as a life and pension actuary and has strengths in risk management, with profits and defined benefit pensions.

He began his career as an actuary at The Gresham Group before moving to Friends Provident where his actuarial and finance roles included Chief Actuary, Actuarial Function Holder, With Profits Actuary and Finance Director (Life & Pensions).

He retired from Friends Provident in December 2009 but remains a trustee of the Friends Provident Pension Scheme where he chairs the Risk and Investment Committee. Brian is also a member of the With Profits Committees of Friends Life Limited, Friends Life & Pensions Limited, Friends Life Company Limited and Friends Life Assurance Society Limited. He is Chair of the With Profits Committee of the Police Mutual Assurance Society Limited.

Brian is Chair of the Risk Committee and is a member of the Audit and With Profits Committees of MGM Advantage.

 

Isabel Hudson

Non Executive Director

Isabel was appointed as a non executive director of MGM Advantage on 1 December 2010. She has nearly 30 years experience in the insurance sector, having worked for Eureko BV in Paris as Chief Financial Officer before joining Prudential UK to become Executive Director. In 2006, she also set up Synesis Life – a specialist annuity and pensions buy-out life insurance company.

Isabel is currently a non executive director of the QBE Insurance Group, Phoenix Group Holdings Limited and is on the Board of The Pensions Regulator. She is also Chair and acting Chief Executive of the National House Building Council.

She is a member of the With Profits Committee of Standard Life Assurance and chairs the Business Development Board of disability charity, Scope.

Isabel is Chair of the Audit and Budget Committee and is a member of the Investment and Remuneration and Nominations Committees.

 

Jim Roberts

Non Executive Director

Jim is a qualified Actuary and has 40 years experience in the life insurance industry. He spent 26 years at Skandia Group including positions as Appointed Actuary, Finance Director and, from 1992 to 2006, Group Investment Director. He has substantial experience of investment management and in particular the retail investment market.

He is currently a non-executive director of Ashcourt Rowan plc and Sarasin & Partners LLP, which operates a broad range of institutional, charity, private client and retail products and is an adviser to Simply Biz, a broker service provider. He is also Chair of the investment committees of both Verbatim Investment Management and Insynergy Investment Management.

Jim was appointed as a non executive director of MGM Advantage on 7 November 2011 and is the Chair of the Investment Committee and a member of the Audit Committee.

 

Philippa Dickson

Non Executive Director

Philippa has substantial operational and general management experience developed from working within the FMCG, airline and financial services sectors.

Philippa is currently Global Systems and Operations Director for Diageo’s Global Procurement function. She has held Director and general management roles at Diageo since 2005. Prior to that, Philippa has held senior positions and Director level roles with British Airways, BUPA, CIGNA and Royal Bank of Scotland.

Philippa was appointed as a non executive director of MGM Advantage on 16 January 2012. She is a member of the Remuneration and Nomination Committee, Risk Committee and With Profits Committee.

 

Other roles:

Mike Arnold

Chair of With Profits Committee

A qualified Actuary, Mike spent more than years 30 years with Milliman (previously Hymans Robertson), one of the leading actuarial practices in the UK.  He focused on the provision of consulting services to life assurance companies and had substantial experience as acting as the independent actuary on a number of demutualisations and reconstructions of insurance companies and life assurance funds.

He has acted as Chair of the International Association of Consulting Actuaries (1994-96), Vice President Institute of Actuaries (1997-99) and Chair of the Association of Consulting actuaries (2000-2002).

He is also a non executive director of Old Mutual plc and Scottish Equitable Policyholders Trust Limited and a member of the With Profits Committee of Prudential Assurance Company Limited.

He served as an independent non executive director of the Society from 28 May 2004 to October 2009. He was appointed as a member of the  With Profits Committee of the Society in 2004 and became Chair in January 2009.

Board Committees:

We’ve set up a number of special committees of the main Board to focus on key areas of activity. The Terms of Reference of these committees are set out below:

Useful documents: