Annual General Meeting (AGM)

Jo became The Institute’s CEO back in 2009. She has driven membership growth by 150 percent and established the UK Customer Satisfaction Index as the national barometer of consumer satisfaction and a key indicator of the return on service strategy investment.

Jo has extensive experience in the financial services sector, having previously held positions at Aviva plc and acted as non-executive director to Aegon UK’s independent governance committee. She has also held director roles in brand and business consulting, policy development and research for City and Guilds and the Chartered Management Institute.

Ben is leading a finance team of 150 people and is a member of the executive team at The Very Group, with brands like Very and Littlewoods.

Ben’s background is in finance and general management roles. He was the European president at Clarks Shoes, responsible for operations across all channels in 26 countries, delivering digital expansion and increasing colleague engagement.

Prior to joining Clarks Shoes, Ben held senior positions in Walgreens Boots Alliance, Boots Opticians, and Procter & Gamble, increasing revenue and market share.

Heather has over 25 years’ experience in financial services across a range of leadership roles covering direct distribution, operational leadership, brand, sales, marketing and digital.

Having joined LV= General Insurance Group in 2016 as the Digital Transformation Director, and working at Aviva and Norwich Union, Heather has led significant change in the organisations moving the customer interactions and services to digital first. This has involved cultural change at the heart of the organisation.

Gareth has almost 20 years’ experience in financial services across a range of roles and leadership positions. For the last 12 years, Gareth has reported to members of the Executive Committee of Brewin Dolphin, a FTSE250 business. Gareth has been charged with building and scaling various business unit and fosters an “intrapreneurial” attitude to get these new business units, utilising the latest technology, off the ground and scaled within a 260-year-old business.

Gareth is passionate about delivering for customers and bringing new customers to financial planning and wealth management, an industry often seen as elitist. Controversially, Gareth would not always say “the customer is always right” but would subscribe to the view “the right customer is always right”.

Tara has nearly 20 years’ experience in senior customer service, operations, and product roles, and she has been working on strategies to optimise customer experience and direct customer engagement.

Prior her role as Director of Operations at Octopus Energy, Tara acted as Country Manager where she run the sales and customer service departments. She also held vice president roles at Affinion where she oversaw a team of 550+ people, supported the product and marketing departments and  implemented strategic changes resulting in increased revenue and cost optimisation.