Standard Life unveils new board team
STANDARD LIFE, Scotland’s biggest insurer, yesterday announced the first major appointments under its new chief executive.
In a major re-shuffle, incoming boss David Nish appointed Christian Torkington and Sandy Begbie to the board of executives.
Torkington joined the firm from RSA Insurance Group, where he was chief operating officer. Prior to this he held senior operational roles within Scottish Widows and Barclays Bank. He will be responsible for developing and implementing Standard Life’s technology strategy. He is also a non-executive director of the Student Loans Company.
Begbie joined from Aegon as group transformation director. He was an executive director at Aegon and previously human resources director at Scottish Power. He has also held various roles within Royal Bank of Scotland.
Nathan Parnaby, currently chief executive of Standard Life Europe, will assume executive responsibility for the group’s Asian businesses. Simon Gulliford continues as group marketing director and Malcolm Wood remains group company secretary. Mike Conway will carry on as group human resources director.
Keith Skeoch will continue in his role as chief executive of Standard Life Investments. Joseph Iannicelli remains chief executive of Standard Life Canada. Jackie Hunt will continue in her role as chief finance officer.
Nish, who replaced Sir Sandy Crombie this month, is paid a salary of £700,000, a short-term bonus of up to 175 per cent of salary and a long term incentive of up to 200 per cent of salary. He said: “Our priority is to develop a growth strategy that will allow us to accelerate the performance of Standard Life.”