Directorate Change

RNS Number : 2514Y

Legal & General Group Plc

28 November 2014

 



LEGAL & GENERAL: INCREASING CUSTOMER FOCUS

On 16 September 2014, the Board of Legal & General Group plc ("Legal & General") announced that John Pollock, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Legal & General Assurance Society (LGAS) division intended to retire, stepping down from the Group Board at the next AGM on 21 May 2015. John brought unique skills and over 35 years of business expertise to Legal & General, and as such we have decided there will be no direct replacement for John on the Board.

Legal & General has today announced management changes in relation to its LGAS Insurance, Corporate and Savings businesses. The subsequent new business structure will enhance our focus on increasing the scalability of our long-term businesses, reducing costs, and delivering enhanced value for shareholders and customers.

John, prior to his retirement at the end of May, will be working with the Managing Directors to ensure a successful transition to the new business structure, with a strong focus on digital. As a director of CALA Homes, John has been and will continue to work with Paul Stanworth, MD Legal & General Capital, and Bill Hughes, MD LGIM Property, on accelerating the growth of Legal & General's housing related businesses.

The new business structure is as follows:

Insurance: The Retail protection business is the biggest in the UK, and combined with our General Insurance business wrote over £1,250m in premium (Q3 2014). Group Protection will move from Corporate and join the Insurance business to form an insurance centre of excellence for our customers with increased scale and expertise. Duncan Finch, current MD of Insurance, will run the enlarged business and report to Nigel Wilson, Group CEO from 1 January 2015.

Corporate: The £10bn AUA workplace Defined Contribution platform will move to LGIM.  It will continue to be headed by Jim Islam, who will join Mark Zinkula's, CEO LGIM, senior management team. LGIM is the largest pension fund manager of Defined Benefit assets in the UK, and this change will enhance its DC growth capabilities and the service we provide to our clients by having the workplace DC platform embedded in LGIM.

Savings: Savings will be split into 2 businesses; Mature and Digital. Jackie Noakes, previously Chief Operating Officer for LGAS and Group IT Director, will become the MD of the Mature Savings Division, consisting of insured savings and with-profit businesses. Digital Savings will be managed by Mike Bury. He will continue to be responsible for Cofunds, IPS, Suffolk Life, and the new digital direct customer proposition. Jackie and Mike will continue to report to John Pollock until the end of March, and subsequently they will report to Nigel Wilson.

Group Finance: Chris Knight, CFO for LGAS will now report to Group CFO Mark Gregory. He will assume responsibility for Procurement and Facilities.

Nigel Wilson, Group CEO said:

"Legal & General builds scalable, customer focused, long-term businesses. John has championed this throughout his successful career. Today's changes will deliver scalability to our long-term businesses, good quality low cost products to our customers, and value to our shareholders.  We remain focused on our clear and differentiated strategy of strong cash generation, organic growth and selective bolt on acquisitions".

-Ends-

For further information, please contact:

Investors:

Laura Doyle                 Head of Investor Relations                                                                020 3124 2088

Stephen Thomas         Investor Relations Manager                                                              020 3124 2047

Media:

John Godfrey               Group Communications Director                                                       020 3124 2090

Richard King               Head of Corporate Communications                                                  020 3124 2095

Notes to editors:

1. Legal & General Group Plc

Established in 1836, Legal & General is a leading provider of insurance, savings and investment management products in the UK. The Group has a market capitalisation of £14.6bn (as at 25th November 2014) and is responsible for investing £676bn worldwide (as at 30th September 2014) on behalf of investors, policyholders and shareholders. We have over seven million customers in the UK for life assurance, pensions, investments and general insurance plans and over one million customers in the US who rely on us for life assurance. In 2013, Legal & General's profits before tax (on the IFRS basis) were £1,134m and earnings per share were 15.20p for the period, an increase of 10% for both respectively.

For more information on Legal & General, please see http://www.legalandgeneralgroup.com/

2. Biographies

Duncan Finch joined Legal & General Insurance, as Managing Director, in January 2011. He became Managing Director, Retail Protection in January 2013 and in September 2013 was promoted to Executive Managing Director of the Insurance business - which incorporates General Insurance, UK Retail Protection, Legal & General Network and Legal & General Netherlands. He is a Chartered Accountant and has over ten years strategic and international financial management experience, at director level, in the general and life insurance industries. Prior to joining Legal & General, Duncan was CEO, International Financial Services (Insurance Division), with Lloyds Banking Group/HBOS Plc, where he had responsibility for the life and pension business across Europe.

Jim Islam is the Executive Managing Director of Legal & General Assurance Society's Corporate Business in the UK and Europe. He was promoted into this role in September 2013. During this time, the number of pension customers crossed the 1 million mark and AUA exceeded £10bn making Legal & General one of the leading providers of pensions auto-enrolment solutions. Previous roles at Legal & General include Managing Director (Group Protection) and Finance Director (Savings Division).  Legal & General's Savings Division included its retail and workplace savings businesses, and as Finance Director until December 2012, Jim played a key role in the financial transformation of the business, and the development of the auto-enrolment proposition and strategy. Jim has over 14 years of senior management experience in pensions, savings, and life and health insurance sectors, in the UK and abroad.  He is Fellow of the Society of Actuaries (USA) and Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.

Jackie Noakes is the Chief Operating Officer for LGAS and Group IT Director, and joined Legal & General in 2007. Jackie started her career in IT working for Ericsson. She subsequently worked for a number of companies within the Financial Services sector whilst living in Sweden, Ireland, America and Australia, before joining American Express in the UK in 1994. Prior to joining Legal and General Jackie was responsible for the delivery of IT solutions for American Express Bank.

Mike Bury is Executive Managing Director of Legal & General's Retail Savings business. This business includes the Group's platform (Cofunds), insured savings (retail pensions and bonds) and SIPP (Suffolk Life) businesses. Mike has been with Legal & General for 14 years starting as Managing Director of the bank which it used to own but has had a number of other roles there before moving into his current role. Prior to joining Legal & General Mike worked within the asset finance division of Lloyds Banking Group for 10 years. Mike has worked in financial services for 32 years in total in the UK and New Zealand and is a Chartered Treasurer.

Chris Knight is the CFO for LGAS, the division as well as the legal entity, and leads the LGAS Finance team. Before taking on this new role within Legal & General, Chris was Finance Director for the Protection and Annuities Division having previously acted in a similar capacity for the International Division within Legal & General. Chris is an actuary by training, with 25 years of experience in the life insurance and financial services industry. He has worked extensively overseas, including in Asia, Africa and North America. Prior to joining L&G, Chris was Aviva's Asian Regional Finance Director in Singapore and CEO of its Taiwan joint venture.

Forward looking statements

Nothing in this announcement should be construed as a profit forecast. This document may contain certain forward-looking statements relating to Legal & General Group, its plans and its current goals and expectations relating to future financial condition, performance and results. By their nature forward-looking statements involve uncertainty because they relate to future events and circumstances which are beyond Legal & General's control, including, among others, UK domestic and global economic and business conditions, market related risks such as fluctuations in interest rates and exchange rates, the policies and actions of regulatory and Governmental authorities, the impact of competition, the timing impact of these events and other uncertainties of future acquisition or combinations within relevant industries. As a result, Legal & General Group's actual future condition, performance and results may differ materially from the plans, goals and expectations set out in these forward-looking statements and persons reading this announcement should not place reliance on forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are made only as at the date on which such statements are made and Legal & General Group Plc does not undertake to update forward-looking statements contained in this document or any other forward-looking statement it may make.

 

END

 

 

BOAFMMZMGNLGDZZ