Stakeholder relations

David Henderson

Chair

Appointed: April 2016

Chair, Independent Non-Executive Director. Member of Group Remuneration Committee, Group Nominations Committee.

David Henderson was appointed to the Board in April 2016.

Experience
David began his career specialising in personal tax and UK trusts. He spent ten years as a banker with Morgan Grenfell and, following that, 11 years in financial services executive recruitment with Russell Reynolds Associates. He joined the Board of Kleinwort Benson Group plc as Personnel Director in 1995. He was appointed Chief Executive of Kleinwort Benson Private Bank Ltd (now Kleinwort Benson) in June 1997. He was Chairman of Kleinwort Benson from 2004 to 2008 and a Senior Adviser to the Bank until 2019. He holds several external Non-Executive Directorships.

Mark Hews was appointed Group Chief Executive in May 2013 and was previously Group Chief Financial Officer. He was appointed to the Board in June 2009 and appointed to the Board of MAPFRE RE in December 2013. He also became a Trustee of The Windsor Leadership Trust in November 2017.

Experience

He was formerly a Director of HSBC Life and Chief Executive of M&S Life. Prior to this he was Finance Director at Norwich Union Healthcare. He started his financial career at Deloitte (formerly Bacon and Woodrow) as a consultant and actuary.

Chris Moulder

Senior Independent Non-Executive Director

Appointed: September 2017

Chair of Audit and Risk Committee and Group Nominations Committee

Chris Moulder was appointed to the Board in September 2017. Chris is also a Director of the Company’s ultimate parent, Benefact Trust Limited, as well as the Insurance Board of Lloyds Banking Group and Tokyo Marine Kiln.

Experience

Chris retired in 2017 after five years at the Bank of England as Director of General Insurance at the Prudential Regulation Authority. Prior to this he had spent 26 years with KPMG as a partner in its Financial Sector practice.

Rita Bajaj

Independent Non-Executive Director

Appointed: July 2021

Member of Audit and Risk Committee and Group Remuneration Committee.

Rita was appointed to the Board in July 2021. She is a Non-Executive Director, Board, and IGC member with over 30 years’ broad investment markets experience.

Experience

Previously, she held senior investment positions at Global and UK Asset Managers, heading investment teams at Royal London & Invesco Perpetual. She was EMEA Chief Administrative Officer at Custodian, State Street and she is also a former FCA regulator.

Currently, Mrs Bajaj is a Board and Investment Panel member for the London Pension Fund Authority (LPFA), Non-Executive Director on Columbia Threadneedle OEIC Boards, an Independent Governance Member for Hargreaves Lansdown’s workplace SIPP Independent Governance Committee.

David Paterson

Independent Non-Executive Director

Appointed to the Board in June 2024

Member of Audit and Risk Committee.

Experience

David is also a Trustee of Benefact Trust (appointed in October 2022). He is also a Non-Executive director of The R&A Group and a Trustee of The Fairtrade Foundation. He is a former Trustee of Christian Aid Kenya and until December 2023, was a member of the Advisory Panel to The Financial Reporting Council. A solicitor by background, David was a partner for 24 years in Herbert Smith Freehills, a global law firm based in London, practicing in corporate finance, board advisory and governance matters.

Mark Bennett

Group Chief Financial Officer

Mark Bennett was appointed Group Chief Financial Officer in January 2025, having progressed his career within the organisation since 2007. He is a member of the Group Management Board, reporting directly to the Group CEO.

Experience

After working at an actuarial consultancy firm in London, Mark began his career at Benefact Group in 2007. Mark qualified as an Actuary in 2009 and, after working in various actuarial teams, was appointed Group Chief Actuary in 2018. Since then, Mark has overseen the Group’s Actuarial, Reinsurance, Risk, Investment and Data functions. Mark became Acting CFO in July 2024, additionally leading the Finance and Premises functions, before taking on the role permanently in January 2025.