Alison Beech, Spicerhaart

Alison Beech has extensive knowledge and experience in business growth within the property and mortgage sectors. Before joining Spicerhaart, she held an interim role of Corporate Development Director for Countrywide. She held the position of Business Development Director at defunct lender Rooftop Mortgages, which she was instrumental in launching and which was owned by US investment bank Bear Stearns. Rooftop closed in July 2008 following the bank’s collapse and take-over by JPMorgan Chase. Prior to Rooftop she managed her own organisational development and HR consultancy.

During her 28-year career she has also been a non-executive director for SPVA, the MOD Agency which supplies personnel services to the armed services, HR director for Guardian Royal Exchange UK & Ireland and Chief Executive of Guardian Mortgage Services, which she established as a third party mortgage administration business, now known as Crown Mortgage Management. She was the IoD East of England Businesswoman of the Year in 1997.

Karen Blatchford, Commercial & Marketing Director, Legal & General

Karen has worked in financial services for 19 years. She joined
Legal & General in 1998 and has held a number of roles predominantly on the intermediary side of the business. In 2007 she joined the Housing Division as Commercial & Marketing Director for their mortgage network - Legal & General Partnership Services Ltd. (LGPSL). Karen is responsible for the overall proposition for the network and for driving the sales of mortgages, protection and GI through it.

LGPSL is the largest AR network in terms of mortgage business. The network offers market leading technology, full business development support, compliance and, of course, Legal & General’s Mortgage Club.

Karen has a BA (Hons) degree in Business from Brighton University and is a Business Leader within the Marketing Society.

George Higginson, Managing Director of Commercial Development, Intrinsic Financial Services

George Higginson is the Managing Director of Commercial Development for Intrinsic Financial Services, overseeing the building of the Proposition and Network though to launch in March 2006, and continues to evolve the Network proposition to date.

He has significant experience within the UK Financial services in Sales Management and at Senior Corporate Level.

George, 45 is married to Michelle, also a Financial Adviser herself, with one Son Craig, aged 8. Hobbies include sailing and motorcycling

Paul Merrigan, CEO, Lifetime Financial Management Ltd (Lifetime Group)

Founded in 1998 by Paul, Lifetime has evolved into a group of successful companies with branches across England and Wales. It consists of 60 advisers in two advisory businesses, one Directly Authorised and a Multi-tied business with the Intrinsic Network. 360Lifecycle Ltd is the client centric business system that has been designed and developed in house to drive both of these businesses.

The system manages customer relationships, compliance, TCF, advisor productivity as well as driving efficiencies across the group. 360Lifecycle provides an end to end solution for today’s advisory business and now competes in the technology market.

Implementing this system together and with Paul’s entrepreneurial flair and commercial ability has led to a positive shift in business ratios as well as growth year on year 2008/2009.

A passionate Arsenal fan and sportsman, Paul, 42, lives in Kew with his wife and two children.

Ben Thompson, Mortgage Director, Legal & General

Ben has been in mortgages and financial services for 22 years with a career spanning banking, direct sales, sales management and more recently forming and growing new propositions and businesses, in particular mortgage clubs. Ben spent the 90’s with Winterthur Life where he was responsible for establishing and managing their mortgage club and then moved on to St. James’s Place where he launched their mortgage club as well as leading the rollout of St. James’s Place Bank. Ben subsequently joined Paymentshield where he launched and grew Paymentshield Mortgage Club amongst other services.

Ben then joined Legal & General to further grow Legal & General Mortgage Club and since he joined in Q4, 2007, it has grown by over 50%. In addition, he has broadened the Mortgage Club proposition with the introduction of added services, including Connect, new loans service, HIP panel development and self-build propositions to help Mortgage Club users overcome the challenges they face in teh market. As a thought leader in the market, Ben has also appeared as a key spokesperson on panels, as well as using new media such as webcasts and audio messaging for Mortgage Club users, to provide comment and clarity on changes in the industry - as they happen.

Ben was also winner of Business Leader of a Mortgage Club at the 2009 British Mortgage Awards.

Nick Baxter, Partner, Baxters Business Consultants

Nick has more than 34 years experience of dealing with mortgages. He was responsible for mortgage lending at executive level within a national lender.

Nick is currently a partner in Baxters Business Consultants (who provide expert witness, management, marketing and training consultancy services to the residential mortgage lending industry), is a director of Mortgage Promotions (a mortgage club for regulated mortgage writers) and a non-executive director with Rockstead (a mortgage audit company).

Nick was involved with the implementation of the Council of Mortgage Lenders Mortgage Code where he was a member of the Mortgage Code Compliance Board Advisory Group and Disciplinary Committee. He is currently appointed by Lord Chancellor/Justice Secretary to the Tribunal Service to hear licensing appeals under the Consumer Credit Act and the Estate Agents Act and appeals from decisions of the OFT under the Money Laundering Regulations 2007. He has been a practicing member of the Academy of Experts (MAE) since 1996.

As one of the most highly qualified people in the mortgage industry, is a regular speaker at industry events and a regular columnist in the mortgage press.

Nick is ideally placed to offer expert witness services in all mortgage related matters.

Ian Giles, Consultant, Ian Giles Marketing

Ian Giles is a strategic marketing, communications and PR consultant, currently advising a number of UK financial services clients (including mortgage, debt management and life assurance companies), professional services firms and charities.
He has over 20 years’ experience in developing and implementing B2B and B2C marketing strategy for all sizes of company, from start ups to FTSE-listed plcs, including Mortgage Trust, First Active, Purely Mortgages and Kensington Mortgages. Along the way, he has built up expertise in dealing with IFA, consumer and City media and gained experience in radio, TV and face to face interviews. He is a copywriter of press releases, articles, newsletters, reports and customer communications and, as an ex-Marketing Director, one of his key strengths is in pulling together and managing a network of specialist agencies to work in an integrated way on a specific marketing project.
Ian is enthusiastic and passionate about what he does, and highly focussed on delivering business, marketing and communications results. He brings a strategic approach to his consultancy but is also a hands-on operator.

Phil Grady, Grant Thornton

Phil Grady is an Associate Director in Grant Thornton and works within the National IVA unit in Grant Thornton. Phil is responsible for managing the team of Client Service managers, widely utilised by the free money advice sector across the country, to resolve consumer debt. Phil works throughout the UK with various contacts within the financial sector advising them on the debt solutions available to resolving their clients financial problems.

Mark Graves, Managing Director, Linear

Mark has over 20 years experience in the financial services industry, originally starting as a financial adviser and then progressing through to managing and setting up financial services businesses in the corporate estate agency world. Six years ago, Mark formed Linear Financial Services with a number of former colleagues, predominantly to offer mortgage advice to independent estate agents. Subsequently, Linear has expanded and evolved, and now offers a wide range of financial advice and products to both it’s existing client base (which exceeds 12,000 in number), and new customers, who are mainly introduced via estate agents.

Stuart Mair, Business Development Manager, LV=

Stuart Mair is LV= specialist Business Development Manager for their revolutionary Mortgage & Lifestyle Protection product.

Stuart joined LV= in April 1989 where he worked within the administration department. In 1997, Stuart was transferred to the Sales Unit dealing with a variety of technical queries and administrative support for independent financial Advisers. In 2000, with Stuart’s knowledge and background experience, he was promoted to become part of their field Sales Team.

With patience and dedication he has seen his panel grow to become one of the top performing panels over the last few years.

Gareth Neill, Partner, Grant Thornton

Gareth Neill is an Insolvency Practitioner and Partner in Grant Thornton, and is responsible for the National IVA Unit in Grant Thornton. Gareth works throughout the UK giving both individuals and businesses solutions on how to recover from financial difficulties, particularly consumer debt. He has over 15 years experience in the industry and has a strong relationship with many advisors in the advice sector including mortgage brokers and other advice businesses. Gareth's principal focus is advising individuals with over indebtedness and creditors.

Ian Andrew, Head of Group Intermediary Sales, Nationwide Building Society

Ian has over 20 years experience in financial services. He joined Nationwide in January 2008, after 18 years at Northern Rock where he held a variety of positions including, Business Development Manager, National Account Manager, Northern Divisional Manager and he set up the Specialist Lending sales Division.

Since joining Nationwide Ian has recruited and launched the Society’s first ever business development sales force, Nationwide for Intermediaries.

Earlier this year, he merged the sales forces of Nationwide for Intermediaries and The Mortgage Works, resulting in a dual branded team of 62 Business Development Managers, 6 Regional Managers and 6 Key Account Managers who promote both prime and specialist products to intermediaries.

John Cupis, Managing Director, Mortgages and GI, Sesame

John Cupis joined Sesame in May 2007. This was a new position to take forward the growth and development of one of the largest mortgage distribution businesses in the UK.

Previously John worked for Legal & General for 7 years, most recently as Mortgages & Propositions Director. In 2006 John was voted the Business Leader winner of the Mortgage Club category, and in 2008 as Business Leader winner of the Mortgage Network category at the British Mortgage Awards. In 2009 John was appointed to the AMI board.

John also has extensive lending experience gained from working at NatWest, where his role spanned international finance, consumer marketing and mortgage marketing, culminating in roles at NatWest Home Loans, which included retention strategy, direct sales, pricing and product development.

John is married with 2 young boys, enjoys skiing and travel.

Maria Harris, Lloyds Banking Group

Maria took up the role as Head of National Accounts, Lloyds Banking Group in Sept of this year. Her key responsibility is to design and implement the national account strategy for Intermediary Sales through leadership of the national account team and developing strategic relationships both internally and externally.

Maria joined HBoS in November 2005 as the Intermediary Sales Centre Manager and went onto join the Halifax Intermediaries Team in April 2007 as Regional Manager Scotland and NI. Maria then took up the role as Head of Sales with Bank of Scotland Intermediaries in February 2008, and also took on responsibility for the Intelligent Finance mortgage brand shortly after.

Paul Howard – Head of Corporate Accounts, Nationwide Building Society

Paul Howard has worked within the intermediary mortgage market for over 25 years. During this time, he has held a number of senior positions with companies such as Bank of Ireland Mortgages, Sunbank and Mortgages plc.

In 2002 he joined Portman Building Society which had just acquired The Mortgage Works (then Sunbank) from Sun Life of Canada. As Sales Director, Paul’s brief was to grow the brand within the intermediary mortgage sector. This was successfully achieved and Paul became Director of Intermediaries for the Portman Group.

Following the merger between Portman and Nationwide Building Societies in September 2007, Paul became Head of Sales for Nationwide Specialist Lending. This newly created division was initially composed of The Mortgage Works and UCB Home Loans although the latter was closed to new business in October 2008. The sales operations of both Nationwide for Intermediaries and TMW were merged in April 2009 and Paul took on a new group role as Head of Corporate Accounts. He and his team are now responsible for ensuring the development of the Nationwide intermediary proposition with all the major mortgage distributors.

Paul is married with three children and lives in Bournemouth.

Bryan Hutchinson. Lloyds Banking Group

Recently Bryan Hutchison was appointed National Account Manager, Intermediary Distribution, Lloyds Banking Group. He has responsibility for a number of Key Account relationships for the Group.

Until recently, Bryan was National Account Manager at Bank of Scotland, and has managed the majority of the key account relationships in the mortgage industry over the last nine years. In his 27 years working at Bank of Scotland, Bryan has also worked on the financial advice side and as an area manager within the branch network.