Alastair Lyons, CBE, MA, FCA
Non-executive Chairman

Alastair Lyons is Non-executive Chairman of the Admiral Group, the FTSE-100 direct motor insurer, a role he has held since 2000, and of Serco, the FTSE-100 international support services business. He is also Deputy Chairman of Bovis, the national house-builder, and SID of Phoenix, the closed life-fund consolidator.

Peter Cullum, CBE, PhD, MBA, FCII, MCIM
Founder & Non-executive Deputy Chairman

Peter began his insurance career in 1969 with the Royal Insurance Group and progressed to sales and marketing positions within Commercial Union and ITT London and Edinburgh where he became marketing director in 1988. In 1991, Peter joined Economic Insurance and led their return to profitability in 1993. In December 1993, Peter led the management buyout of the Economic that was sold in 1996 to Hiscox plc. He joined Hiscox as group marketing director, a role he held until he left in 1997 to create Towergate Underwriting Group. In 2005, Peter won the Ernst & Young UK Entrepreneur of the Year award. In December 2010, Peter was awarded the CBE for his contribution to business, entrepreneurship and charitable causes.

Mark Hodges, FCCA, MBA
Group Chief Executive Officer

Mark Hodges was appointed chief executive of Towergate Insurance in September 2011. Prior to this Mark was chief executive at Aviva UK which comprises the Life and Pensions and General Insurance businesses in January 2010. He was appointed to the board of Aviva plc as an executive director in June 2008 and was also a member of the Aviva group executive committee. Previously Mark was chief executive of Aviva UK Life, formerly known as Norwich Union Life, and held this role since April 2006. Prior to that he held the position of Managing Director of Aviva UK Insurance from 2005 to 2006 and Finance Director of Aviva UK Insurance from 1997 to 2005. Mark is a professionally qualified accountant (FCCA) and has an MBA from Cranfield Business School.

Scott Egan, ACMA, MBA
Group Chief Finance Officer

Scott was appointed chief financial officer of Towergate Insurance in April 2012. Prior to joining Towergate, Scott was Group Chief Financial Officer of Brit Insurance Holdings from January 2011. In this role Scott was a Member of the Brit Executive Management Team, Group Audit Committee, Group Risk Committee and Group Pensions Committee, Chair of Group Reserve Committee and Group Investment Committee and also Board member of Brit UK and Brit Gibraltar. Before this, Scott spent 4 years at Zurich, as Group Chief Financial Officer UK, Zurich Financial Services and latterly as Group Financial Controller. Between 1995 and July 2007, he held various senior finance roles at Norwich Union, and subsequently Aviva.

During this time his responsibilities included Director of Partnerships, Managing Director of RAC before becoming Strategy & Business Development Director Aviva Europe, where he was a member of the Aviva Europe Management Board.

Humphrey Battcock, CA, MBA
Non-executive Director

Humphrey joined Advent in 1994 and has 23 years of private equity experience. Prior to joining Advent, Humphrey spent nine years as a partner with Trinity Capital Partners, a U.K. venture capital and buyout firm. From 1976 to 1983, he worked for Coopers & Lybrand, in London, where he qualified as a Chartered Accountant, and New York.

Andy Homer, FCII
Non-executive Director

Andy was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Towergate Insurance in 2005. He joined Towergate in 2002 as Chief Executive Officer of the Folgate Partnership. Andy has worked in the insurance business since 1971. His career includes appointments as General Manager of Commercial Union UK (now part of Norwich Union) and CEO of Axa Insurance UK. Between 1998 and 2001 he was Chairman of the Motor Insurance Bureau and was President of the Chartered Insurance Institute in 2002/3. In January 2012 Andy was appointed Chairman of British Insurance Brokers' Association.

Philip Moore
Non-executive Director

Philip has over 30 years industry experience. He is Group Finance Director of LV= having joined from Pension Corporation where he was Group Finance Partner and Chief Risk Officer. Prior to this he was Group Finance Director and latterly Group Chief Executive at Friends Provident, where he was a Non-executive Director of F&C Asset Management. He has previously held roles at AMP, NPI and PricewaterhouseCoopers both in London and Hong Kong.

Nick Rose, MA
Non-executive Director

Nick joined Advent in 2005 from Bain and Company where he worked in their private equity practice on both pre and post acquisition work. Nick’s sector focus at Advent is on business and financial services, with emphasis on speciality finance, insurance, asset management and outsourcing companies.

James Strachan
Non-executive Director and Chairman of the Group Risk Committee

James Strachan is a Non-Executive Director of JPMorgan Asian Investment Trust plc, Welsh Water Limited and Sarasin and Partners LLP. He is also Senior Visiting Fellow in risk and regulation at LSE, and having been Chairman, is now Vice President of the charity, RNID. Previous roles include Chairman of the Audit Commission, a Member of the Court of Directors of the Bank of England and Non-Executive Director of the Financial Services Authority, Legal and General plc, Care UK plc, Ofgem, Social Finance and the DTI Business and Energy Boards. He started his career as a commercial banker at Chase Manhattan and then became an investment banker at Merrill Lynch, where he was Managing Director and a Board member of Merrill Lynch International.

Dr Teresa Robson-Capps
Non-executive Director

Teresa has spent over 20 years in a variety of senior executive operational board positions in the Retail, Mobile Telecoms, Insurance and Banking industries. Teresa was Deputy Head of HSBC Direct Bank from June 2009 to September 2011. During this time she developed and implemented a substantial change programme, integrating sales and service with increased conversion rates whilst improving both customer and employee satisfaction.Prior to this Teresa was Head of Contact Centres for HSBC, a role covering 11 million UK customers from 13 virtual sites. Teresa was an Associate Partner at Accenture from 2003 to 2006 and in the three years prior to that, was MD of The Customer Division at Reality, a Division of GUS PLC.

Tim Johnson, MBA, BSc (Hons), ACII, Chartered Insurance Broker
Chief Executive Officer, Paymentshield

Tim began his insurance career with Royal Insurance, before moving into the broking arena with Aon in 1994. Following periods in the Corporate and Sports and Events divisions he took up the post of CEO of Aon’s Affinity and SME business.He joined Towergate as CEO in 2003, and was involved in a number of acquisitions which saw the business grow rapidly. On the merger of Towergate and Folgate in 2005, Johnson formulated a plan for a new business, Cullum Capital Ventures, with Peter Cullum. CCV made 36 acquisitions in less than 3 years, which saw the business grow from start up to the UK’s third largest independently owned intermediary, a growth curve matched only by Towergate.

In June 2009 he took up the role of CEO of Paymentshield, one of Towergate’s most significant acquisitions to date and the dominant player in the mortgage broker general insurance market place.

Clive Nathan, BA, ACII
Chief Executive Officer - Underwriting

Clive Nathan was appointed as Chief Executive Officer Underwriting in 2006. Clive began his career in 1987 as a graduate entrant with Commercial Union. His roles with CU included Marketing Executive, Development Manager and National Broker Manager. Clive joined AXA in 1999 as National Broker Director and was involved in the acquisition of GRE which resulted in him becoming Regional Director. He joined Towergate in 2003 as Regional Managing Director and was promoted to Divisional Managing Director with responsibility for both Retail and Underwriting businesses in 2005. Clive is a member of the CII Underwriting Faculty and a mentor to the CII New Generation Claims Group.

Lucinda Charles-Jones, BA (Hons), MCIPD
Group HR Director

Lucinda was appointed Group HR Director in October 2011, joining from AXA where she held the role of Interim Group HR Director for AXA UK/Ireland Group. She has many years of senior management board experience including HR Director roles at Barclays UK Retail Bank, RAC Consumer and Lex Vehicle Leasing Ltd, and more recently spent three years as Group HR Director at Hays Plc.

Keith Jackson
Group Risk Officer

Keith joined Towergate Insurance in October 2012 from global healthcare provider Bupa where he held the role of Group Chief Risk Officer from 2009 to 2012. In the previous 25 years, Keith has held a variety of senior risk and finance positions in a range of firms including Aviva and Yorkshire Electricity. Keith is a qualified accountant (FCMA) and holds an MBA from Strathclyde Graduate Business School.

Michael Rea, LLB, FCA
Chief Executive Officer - Retail

Following a career with Price Waterhouse, Michael has held a number of senior corporate finance and finance director roles in the insurance industry, notably at Prudential, Churchill and NIG. He moved into general management with NIG in 2005 as Head of UK Operations, and joined the Towergate group in 2008 as Chief Operating Officer of the Underwriting Division. Michael took over as CEO of CCV in September 2009. In October 2011, Michael was appointed CEO of Towergate Retail Division.

Jill Lucas
Group Chief Information Officer

Jill Lucas was appointed Group Chief Information Officer in November 2012, joining from Belron International where she held the post of Chief Information Officer for the group. Prior to that, Jill held a number of senior IT leadership roles at Sainsburys and Barclays, and more recently was one of four business-facing directors in the Information, Services & Technology function at Reuters (now Thomson Reuters).

Gary Duggan
Group CEO Network Division

Gary joined Towergate Insurance in February 2013 from Barclays where he held various positions over a six year period, the most recent being Chief Retail Officer, New Markets. Prior to that, he held several Managing Director roles, including MD Insurance and Investments.
Gary has over 25 years’ experience in Retail banking which has included running large scale businesses requiring significant transformation.
Prior to Barclays, Gary was Marketing and Cross-Sales Director – Consumer Lending, at GE Money and Head of Personal Loans for HBOS.


Throughout his career Gary has gained extensive experience, developing and executing commercial and strategic plans resulting in increased profits during difficult economic periods.

Lindsay Forster
Group Marketing Director

Lindsay will join Towergate Insurance in May 2013 from Lloyds Banking Group where she held various positions over a nine year period, the most recent being Products and Marketing Director for the Commercial Bank. Prior to that, she was GI Products and Marketing Director. Lindsay has held a number of senior marketing positions within Norwich Union, RAC, Mazda Motor Europe and Lotus Cars. Throughout her career, which spans over 25 years, Lindsay has gained strong, extensive experience in senior level marketing.