Our board of directors

Rupert Pennant-Rea was appointed to the Board of Directors on 13 December 2012 and was appointed Chairman after the AGM in 2013. He is Chairman of the Nomination Committee and is a member of the Remuneration Committee. Rupert has extensive financial services industry experience. He was chairman of Henderson Group plc for eight years and stepped down at its AGM in May 2013. He was deputy governor of the Bank of England from 1993 to 1995, prior to which he spent 16 years with The Economist, where he was editor from 1986 to 1993. He was appointed non-executive chairman of the Economist Group in July 2009. His other directorships include PGI Group Limited and Times Newspaper Holdings Limited.

Phil Loney was appointed to the Board on 1 October 2011, coinciding with his appointment as Group Chief Executive of Royal London Group. He is a member of the Nomination Committee. He previously spent eight years at Lloyds Banking Group, most recently as managing director of Life, Pensions and Investments. Prior to joining Lloyds, Phil held senior management positions with AXA, Norwich Union, CGU and Lloyds Abbey Life amongst others. He is a director of the Association of British Insurers (ABI).

Tim joined the Group in May 2014. Before joining Royal London he was at Torus Insurance where he was Group Chief Financial Officer. He is a member of the Investment and With-Profits Committees. Previous to Torus, Tim was at Aviva plc where he held several positions including Deputy Group Chief Financial Officer and Chief Capital Officer, CFO, Aviva Europe, and Group Chief Accountant. Before joining Aviva Tim was at PricewaterhouseCoopers where he was a Partner in the Global Capital Markets practice. Tim is a graduate of Durham University and Warwick Business School, a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, where he serves on the Board of the Financial Services Faculty and the Insurance Committee, and a Chartered Insurance Practitioner.

Jon Macdonald was appointed to the Board on 14 December 2012 having joined the Group in November 2012 as Chief Risk Officer. He is a member of the Investment Committee. Jon was previously group chief risk officer for RSA. He has held a number of senior risk and capital management roles at Prudential, PwC, Aviva, Fox-Pitt Kelton, Swiss Re and Zurich and is a fellow of the Institute of Actuaries. He is a member of the Institute of Actuaries’ risk management executive committee.

Duncan Ferguson was appointed to the Board on 1 April 2010. Duncan is the Senior Independent Director and is Chairman of the With-Profits Committee. He also sits on the Nomination, Board Risk and Audit Committees. He has some 40 years’ experience in senior management of insurance companies and as a consulting actuary. He was senior partner of Bacon & Woodrow, then B&W Deloitte, from 1994 to 2003 and a non-executive director of Henderson Group plc until December 2013. Duncan was also a non-executive director of Halifax from 1994 until it merged with Bank of Scotland in 2001 and then of HBOS Financial Services until 2007. He is currently Chairman of the Guardian With-Profits Committee. He was president of the Institute of Actuaries from 1996 to 1998.

Andrew Palmer was appointed to the Board on 1 April 2011. Andrew is Chairman of the Audit Committee and sits on the Remuneration, Board Risk and, Nomination Committees. He was group finance director of Legal & General Group plc where he also held a number of financial and operational roles in the asset management, insurance and international businesses. He is a non-executive director of Direct Line Insurance Group, a Trustee and Honorary Treasurer of Cancer Research UK, and is a member of the Financial Reporting Review Panel of the Financial Reporting Council

Tracey Graham was appointed to the Board on 10 March 2013. Tracey is Chairman of the Remuneration Committee and sits on the Audit and Nomination Committees. She was chief executive of Talaris Limited, an international cash management business, from 2005 to 2010 and led the management buyout of that business from De La Rue. Prior to that, she was president of Sequoia Voting Systems, customer services director at AXA Insurance plc and held a number of senior positions at HSBC. Tracey is currently non-executive director at RPS Group plc and Dialight plc, where she chairs their respective remuneration committees.

David Weymouth was appointed to the Board on 1 July 2012. He chairs the Board Risk Committee and sits on the Audit and Nomination Committees. David retired as group chief risk officer at RSA at the end of May 2015, having been group operations and risk director since he joined RSA in 2007. Prior to this, he consulted for a number of major firms and government departments and enjoyed a successful 27-year career at Barclays including the role of group chief information officer. He is a non-executive director of the Financial Conduct Authority’s Financial Compensation Scheme. He has previously held a number of non-executive roles at the Department of Trade and Industry, Chordiant Software and the Charities Aid Foundation.

Ian Dilks was appointed to the Board on 14 November 2014. He is a member of the Nomination, Investment and Audit Committees. Ian spent his entire career at PwC, joining the firm (which was then Coopers & Lybrand) in 1974 and becoming a partner in 1986.  He rose to become a member of PwC’s Global Financial Services Leadership team and Global Insurance Leader.  He also led PwC’s IFRS conversion businesses in the UK. In his final role in PwC he had responsibility globally for Public Policy and Regulatory Affairs. He is currently Chairman of the NHS Litigation Authority.

Sally Bridgeland was appointed to the Board on 14 January 2015. Sally is Chairman of the Investment Committee and sits on the Nomination Committee. Sally spent 20 years in a variety of roles at AON Hewitt, covering the design and funding of pension arrangements and advising on investment strategy for pension funds and insurance companies.  Sally led a number of  industry innovations in her role as Head of Investment Research. She was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the BP Pension Fund in 2007, where she was responsible for strategy, regulatory and operational matters for the £19 billion BP Pension Fund. Sally is currently a trustee of NEST Corporation and two of the Lloyds Bank pension schemes; and is Senior Warden of the Worshipful Company of Actuaries. Sally is also a member of FTSE's Policy Group, providing oversight of FTSE's index rules and strategic direction.