What is your background?
I have over 25 years of international financial services experience, gained in executive roles across Europe, Asia and Australia, covering life and pensions, general insurance, wealth management and banking.
I joined Friends Life from ANZ Banking Corporation where I was managing director, wealth, based in Sydney, Australia. I was responsible for insurance, share trading, financial planning and private banking.
I head the international division, reporting to the chief executive officer, Andy Briggs; and I am a member of the group executive committee.
In this role I’m responsible for all of the group’s international businesses. This includes Friends Provident International; fpb AG, our distribution partner; Lombard, the Luxembourg-based wealth and estate planning specialist; and AmLife, our joint venture in Malaysia.
Before joining ANZ, I was the CEO of HBOS Financial Services, based in London. I have an MBA from the University of Western Australia and am a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. I have also completed studies at London Business School, Oxford University and the Asian School of Management in Malaysia.
How would you describe your management style?
I aim to be a visible leader. I am very candid in my opinions and believe in transparency. I’m very hands-on and inclusive, and I really enjoy spending time with customers, key business partners, stakeholders and colleagues at all levels of the organisation. While I am a great believer in intuition, I use logic-based decision making and try to keep emotion to a minimum.
You joined Friends Life as managing director of its international businesses in November 2011. What attracted you to the position?
I believe in the focus, strategy and objectives that Friends Life Group has set for the international division. I enjoy the diversity that is offered from the international dimension, across multiple functions and geographies. All of these aspects offer a great opportunity for me personally and for the company.
From a personal perspective I have worked in London before and I love the city. It’s a good location and this is a great job.
Before joining Friends Life, what were your perceptions of the company?
At HBOS Financial Services, Friends Life’s international division – namely Friends Provident International, Lombard, fpb AG and AmLife – were my respected competitors. I admired Friends Life’s evolving strategy from afar, and observed the business in Asia and the Middle East grow successfully.
What were your priorities on starting the job?
My first priorities will always be to our customers and our people, and to provide further clarity and direction on the international strategy.
I intend to deliver on these two priorities by visiting all of our international locations regularly and by being very active in the development of our propositions, through regular liaison with our customers and key distribution partners.
What do you plan to achieve in your first 100 days?
Complete a strategic review of all our international businesses. To ensure our people structures and competencies match our strategy, to have met face-to-face with our major distributors, and to have visited all of our international locations.
Longer term, what are your objectives for the business?
My objective for the business will be to review our strategy for long-term growth and profitability.
Friends Life was an early investor in the Middle East and Asia, and we are now gaining the benefits of the growth in these markets. We intend to continue our growth and expansion plans in these regions.
Our ultimate objectives are to achieve critical scale in each individual country and deliver value to the group.
Friends Life has clients across the Middle East, Asia and Europe. What are the biggest opportunities for expansion, both geographically and in terms of products?
We were an early investor into these markets and the group has had an international presence for over 30 years.
We have taken our experience and expertise from the UK markets in protection, pensions and annuities, and established a presence in less mature markets in the Middle East and Asia.
The biggest opportunity for the international division is to expand on our investment in the emerging markets, and continue the growth of the already successful life assurance, tax and estate planning solutions through Lombard.
In the UK, life and pensions companies operating overseas originally focused on expat business rather than the opportunity to become a prominent provider in each local market. Our business model is a mix of both local and expat business, supported by local staff with local language capabilities. For example, the staff who support our Middle East operation can speak over ten different languages.
In what ways do you expect the international life industry to change over the next five years?
I believe that the international life industry will continue to expand, and this has been forecast by many expert commentators.
A focus on commission disclosure, appropriate financial advice and independence between distributors and manufacturers is already evident in Australia, the UK and the US.
This trend will extend into the Middle East and Asia. Over time, as an industry, we need to develop our products, processes and approach to cope with regulatory changes.
I also predict that e-commerce, direct and bancassurance sales will increase the pressure on the traditional IFA market. The UK and European economic cycle is vastly different to that of Asia. I believe strongly in economic cycles and I am confident that the European markets will recover and be back in a growth position over the next five years.
What are your likes and dislikes about the cross-border life sector?
I like the diversity and varying cultures that you get to experience when managing the cross-border life sector, the regulatory environment and the products. There is never a dull moment and always plenty to learn. I dislike the fact that coping with the different languages, regulations, tax rates, currencies and cultures is extremely complex and does increase costs unless these are well managed.
Who are your business heroes?
I am a huge fan of Charles Thomas Munger, the vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway. He is the often forgotten partner of Warren Buffett. I admire him because he makes complex issues very simple, and that he is humble and does not need to be the front man to be successful.
Who has been the biggest influence on your career?
The biggest influence on my career to date has been Donald Humphreys. He was managing partner of Ernst & Young in Western Australia, and founding chairman of St Andrew’s Insurance in Australia, an insurance and wealth company that we set up together in 1998.
I learned much from working with him. He always taught me to run a small company like a big company, because if you don’t it will never be a big company.
Describe your ideal deputy.
Someone who knows more than me, but doesn’t let anyone else know it.
What is the hardest business lesson you have learned?
My biggest regret was that I did not take an equity stake in the company that I set up, as it was subsequently sold for a substantial amount of money. I missed an opportunity there and it was a valuable but difficult lesson to learn.
Property funds in the UK; when I moved to London in 2007 most people were of the opinion that bricks and mortar do not drop in price.
Liquidity is key – the UK banks, property funds worldwide and many large businesses forgot that you need liquid cash to survive, and watching the demise of the UK banks and being an employee of HBOS UK at that time, was a great example of this.
The life and general insurance companies had liquidity. However the UK banks did not manage liquidity appropriately.
What is the best piece of business advice you could offer someone?
The best piece of business advice I could offer someone is never, ever compromise your ethics or beliefs, and in my experience most free advice has been worth what I paid for it.
