Speakers

Martyn has 40 years’ experience in the General Insurance market, having held positions with Cornhill, Bishopsgate/Fortis and Zenith he moved into broking 20 years ago with Marsh heading up their Bancassurance SME business before establishing Group Direct in 2001 which then became Brightside Plc on a reverse takeover in 2008. Having been running all Broking operations he then became CEO in 2012. After being thwarted in an attempt to take the business private in 2014 he left and joined Markerstudy Group as Commercial Director managing all external relationships whilst also overseeing the Insurance Broking and Affinity divisions. He established Holman Advisory Ltd in 2017 and is currently a Non Exec Director at Insurance Software provider Open GI and niche Telematics Insurer Smart Driver Insurance whilst also consulting for Legal Protection Group, Amber management and Pukka Insurance.

Alan joined Simply Business in September 2016 as the Chief Commercial Officer.  He previously spent 12 years at Hiscox where his career spanned underwriting, operations and leadership roles, most latterly as the Sales Director UK & Ireland.  He started his insurance career as a trainee with Royal & Sun Alliance.

After starting his career in motor underwriting, Peter switched to broking, and eventually led a management buy-out of the UK commercial division of Farr in 2000 which he then named FMW Risk Services Ltd.  He grew this business to approximately £25m gross written premium before selling the business in December 2007 to Oval.  In 2012 Peter was appointed Chief Executive of Oval and he ran the business through until its eventual sale to Arthur J. Gallagher which completed in April 2014.

In May 2015 Peter concluded a management buy-in of Aston Scott and then led the merger with Lark Group in 2017.  As Group CEO he now leads a business with over 700 staff across 21 locations in the UK and Ireland that writes over £300m of gross written premium.

Peter is also non-executive chairman at Hastings Insurance Services Ltd, the broker arm of Hastings Direct, and is chairman of the Large Brokers’ Advisory Board at the British Insurance Brokers Insurance Association (BIBA).

Peter has just concluded a 9-year term as a trustee of the Essex Community Foundation which is an independent charitable trust improving the quality of life of people in Essex by investing and distributing funds on behalf of a wide range of donors.  Essex Community Foundation looks after over £40m worth of endowed funds and awards thousands of grants each year to a variety of voluntary organisations and projects.

Peter lives in Colchester with his wife, Sue, and has three children aged 18, 17 and 12 and his hobbies include padel tennis, tennis, swimming, shooting, golf and watching rugby.