Just Group appoints new CEO

Richardson will also become CEO of the Group’s subsidiaries, Just Retirement and Partnership Life Assurance Company, and will retain his roles as interim group chief financial officer and managing director of UK corporate business.

Richardson was previously group chief financial officer of Partnership Assurance Group from February 2013 until its merger with Just Retirement in April 2016 to form Just Group.

Prior to that, he was group chief actuary of closed life assurance fund consolidator, Phoenix Group, where he was responsible for restructuring the group’s balance sheet and overall capital management. He has also worked in a number of senior roles at Swiss Re, across both its Admin Re and traditional reinsurance businesses.

Chris Gibson Smith, chairman, commented: “The strength of our leadership team is a top priority for the Board and, following a comprehensive external search, we are pleased to announce the appointment of David Richardson as our group chief executive officer. David’s leadership is already transforming the Group, and making his interim CEO role permanent is a natural step for us to take. Together with Andy Parsons’ arrival as chief financial officer in the New Year this means we will have a first-class team in place to lead the Group forward.”

David Richardson added: “I am delighted to have been offered this opportunity, and I’d like to thank the directors for appointing me at this crucial time. As I stated in our recent interim results announcement, capital is the Group’s number one priority with our key objective to be organically capital generative by 2022. We continue to operate good businesses and are well positioned in attractive markets, but we must use our capital base wisely. My job is to maximise shareholder value, with no options excluded.”