Directors

John was appointed to the Board in 2007 as Deputy Chairman and succeeded Clive Coates as Chairman in May 2008. He has a wealth of experience in insurance underwriting and broking as well as the property and consumer retail arena.

John is currently Chairman of Next plc and a non-executive director of WH Smith PLC and a non-executive director of Cable and Wireless plc. He was Chief Executive of JIB Group plc for 13 years, Chairman of Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group plc for five years and Chairman of Wellington Underwriting PLC for five years.

Dane was appointed Chief Executive Officer in 2005 having been Deputy Chief Executive Officer since March 2004 and an Executive Director since 1999.

In 1998 Dane joined Brit Insurance Limited (BIL) and was appointed as BIL’s Chief Executive Officer. In 2002 he was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Brit Syndicates Limited and Group Head of Underwriting.

Dane joined the Willis Faber Group in 1982 and was appointed executive director of the Political & Financial Risk Division in 1988. He was a founder shareholder and director of Special Risk Services Limited from 1989-1994. Between 1994 and 1998 he was a consultant on the sale of a number of mortgage operations and a risk consultant to several financial institutions. He was appointed a full time consultant to The Benfield Group in 1997 prior to joining BIL. 

He joined the Board of the ABI in 2009, was on the Board of the Lloyd’s Market Association from 2004-2006 the last year of which was as chairman, chaired the Market Reform Group until the beginning of 2008 and chaired the industry’s Contract Certainty Steering Group from 2005 to 2007.

Dane was made a CBE in 2007 for services to business.

Matthew joined the Board as Finance Director in 1999. 

He has been Finance Director of Brit Insurance Limited since 1993 and was appointed Finance Director of Brit Syndicates Limited in 2004.

Matthew is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and joined the C T Bowring Group in 1979, transferring to English & American Group in 1982. He was finance director of English & American Group plc from 1991-1993 and Group Financial Controller of Benfield Group plc from 1996-1999. 

He is a member of the Finance Committee of the Lloyd’s Market Association.

Ken was appointed Non-Executive Director in February 2007 and is a member of the Audit, Remuneration and Nomination Committees. He has been a Non-Executive Director of Brit Insurance Limited since 2000 and was Chairman of that company from 2003-2007. He has been a Non-Executive Director of Brit Syndicates Limited since 2004.

Ken was formerly chief executive of the Portman Building Society, is a past chairman of the Building Societies Association and was a member of the Council of Mortgage Lenders. He was also deputy president of the International Union for Housing Finance Institutions until 1999, a director of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme from 2000-2005, a non-executive director of JP Morgan Fleming Managed Income plc from 2000-2002 and a non-executive director then chairman of JP Morgan Elect plc from 1999-2007. 

He was appointed a CBE in 1998 for services to the Building Society movement. 

He is currently chairman of Marks & Spencer Financial Services plc and 1st Credit (Funding) Limited.

Peter joined the Board in 2004 and is Chairman of the Audit Committee and a member of the Remuneration and Nomination Committees. 

He was previously UK managing partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers. He spent his early career at Deloitte Haskins & Sells in their Management Consultancy Division, later advising on competition policy, investment appraisal and strategic planning. He was also involved in founding the Corporate Finance Practice, specialising in privatisation, regulation and mergers and acquisitions. 

Peter is chairman of Argent Group PLC, a non-executive director of UK Coal PLC and of Smith & Williamson Holdings Limited. He is a member of the Competition Commission and the Natural Environment Research Council and a trustee of The Oval Cricket Relief Trust. 

Joe was appointed to the Board in 2005 and is Chairman of the Remuneration Committee and a member of the Audit Committee. 

He held a number of senior positions with J P Morgan between 1979 and 2001 and was most recently chief executive of J P Morgan Europe, Middle East and Africa Region.

He is currently a non-executive director of Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC, senior independent non-executive director of Morgan Crucible plc, chairman of the Prytania Group and a Trustee of Macmillan Cancer Support.

Cees joined the Board in 2005 and became Senior Independent Director in 2006.  He is a member of the Audit, Nomination and Remuneration Committees. Cees was appointed as a Non-Executive Director of Brit Insurance Limited and Brit Syndicates Limited in 2007.

He has some 30 years' industry experience, most recently as managing director of Aviva International and managing director of CGU Insurance. He previously held a number of senior positions in Commercial Union. Prior to this Cees was a partner with Coopers & Lybrand in charge of insurance consultancy.

He is chairman of Drive Assist Holdings Limited, Senior Independent Director of Record plc and, a Commissioner of the Guernsey Financial Services Commission.

Michael joined the Board in 2004 and is Chairman of the Nomination Committee and a member of the Audit and Remuneration Committees.

He is a former senior partner of Titmuss Sainer & Webb (now Dechert LLP), where he was a specialist corporate lawyer. From the early 1990s he concentrated on the Lloyd's insurance market and built a team of lawyers focused solely on this area. 

He is a non-executive director of Randall & Quilter Investment Holdings plc, Cavell Managing Agency Limited and CFC Underwriting Limited, and a trustee of The Foyle Foundation, The Batty Charitable Trust, The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery Development Foundation, and The Oval Cricket Relief Trust.

Willem Stevens received a law degree from the University of Leiden in 1961 and graduated in 1962 from the National Tax Academy (Rijksbelastingacademie, Rotterdam). He received a LLM degree from Harvard Law School, Cambridge, USA in 1963. After serving for a short period as a deputy tax inspector with the Dutch Tax Administration, he joined the Amsterdam law firm Caron & Van den Heuvel in 1965.  After Mr Van Heuvel’s withdrawal from the firm in 1972, he associated with Mr Caron.

From 1972 to 2002 he was chairman/senior partner of Caron & Stevens/Baker & McKenzie, the Amsterdam office of the international law firm Baker & McKenzie (currently Baker & McKenzie Amsterdam NV), attorneys-at-law, tax counsellors and notaries in Amsterdam. He also served on the global executive committee of Baker & McKenzie and acted as chairman of the European Regional Council of Baker & McKenzie.

After he retired from the Firm in 2002, he acted until 2006 as senior counsel to Baker & McKenzie Amsterdam N.V., the new name of the Firm.

Mr Stevens is a member of the supervisory board of Schiphol Group, TBI Holdings, AZL, Holland Casino and Nederlandse Staatsloterij and a member of the advisory board of NIVRA (Netherlands Association of Certified Public Auditors).

He is chairman of the board of the Amsterdam city hospital “Onze Lieve Vrouwe Gasthuis” and vice-chairman of the board of the Concertgebouw Fund.

Mr Stevens was a senator in the Dutch Parliament for the Christian Democratic Party from 1991 till 2003. He served on the National Commission for the Reform of Wage and Income Tax (Oort Commission, 1985 -1986) and was chairman of the successive National Tax Reform Commission (Stevens Commission, 1990 – 1991) He was national chairman of the Netherlands Society for Industry and Trade (Nederlandsche Maatschappij voor Nijverheid en Handel, 1996 – 2000).

Mr Stevens has authored articles and publications on legal and tax issues. He is a guest lecturer on corporate governance for executive management programs at Erasmus University (Rotterdam) and Nyenrode Business University (Breukelen).

In 1994 Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands appointed Mr Stevens a knight in the Order of the Dutch Lion (Ridder in de Orde van de Nederlandse Leeuw) and in 2003 officer in the Order of Oranje Nassau (Officier in de Orde van Oranje Nassau).