Brian Smith Email & Phone Number

United Kingdom

I first joined the Audit Committee in 2016, becoming Chair in 2019 and at the same time becoming a trustee of an organisation with over £300m assets.I was credited with having transformed the Audit Committee during my term of office, despite this being a period of intense change in the Finance function.I focussed particularly on the financial strength of the charity, successfully identifying opportunities to raise additional revenue from both the investment and housing portfolios against a backdrop of Covid.

I supported development of a new strategic plan with a view to the broader planning and control cycle, reviewed the College's standing committee structure and was catalytic in ensuring that the Board received regular management accounts after a change of constitution.While originally appointed for 4 years, I was invited to stay on the Trustee Board for an extra two years in the interests of continuity.

United Kingdom

During late February 2020, I took the lead in flagging up the College's exposure to Covid, at a time when the pandemic was having serious effects in Northern Italy,

United Kingdom

The church is a C14th Grade 1 listed building. It faced a £37k cost for an urgent project to repair a leaking roof. I ran a grant campaign which ultimately reduced the impact on church funds to £7k.

London

Mobius Life was an independent institutional pension platform with £6bn funds under management, sold by Alexander Forbes Group in 2013 in a management buy out. I was a member of the management team responsible for transitioning to independence.Following the buy-out, I successfully designed and implemented a planning and reporting process with monthly management reporting. I built a new Finance team, integrating it into the wider business, and redesigned the year end process.I led preparations for Solvency 2, preparing the company's first solvency assessment and submitted it to the PRA.I converted capital planning on to a Solvency 2 basis, reviewing Solvency 2 calculations, increasing dividends by £600k. I subsequently implemented a capital reconstruction programme, generating £21m distributable profits.

London, United Kingdom

From May 2012, I acted as Divisional CFO, reporting to the Divisional CEO. I led the delivery of the Strategic Plan, Three Year Plan, interim results and managed the transition during a period of internal reorganisation. I was personally responsible for €20m pa profit improvement by the French Group Risk business, premium income €150m, by analysis of recent results. This led to the closure of unprofitable schemes and premium increases.I led the finance workstream for a project for internal reassurance of a major cohort of US business to the UK, drafting the initial paper for the FSA. This ultimately facilitated $12m pa savings, $390m capital benefit and $80m return of cash to the Group centre. I improved Dutch operating profits by €25m by investigating accounting for investment profits.I analysed US mortality experience across a portfolio of 900,000 policies, leading to a review of mortality reporting by the local actuarial team and tighter controls over claims handling.I reduced the data collection requirement by 50% for Solvency 2 Pillar 3 in respect of overseas businesses by using a pragmatic approach to propose suitable dispensations.

I developed and embedded management information to support Divisional management, together with formal quarterly reviews of performance for the Group CEO and CFO. I continually emphasised importance of sales, expenses, lapses and mortality as profit drivers. I also briefed Group representatives on local boards to ensure management were challenged effectively. I developed and managed a planning process for the new Division, aligning processes with local board meetings. This included reviewing a draft India plan on site with the local financial and actuarial teams. In terms of external reporting, I Introduced a detailed quarterly review of financial statements for all businesses, drafted a presentation of divisional results for Investor Relations and presented divisional performance to Standard and Poors and other rating agencies.I developed division-wide reporting on sales and margins at product level.

I completely reworked 2008 economic capital consolidation at short notice, reconciling it to IFRS and re- engineering the entire process. I then accelerated production of the key results by four months at 2009 year end.I also reinstated the planning cycle and introduced quarterly reporting.

I was recruited to strengthen Group Finance after the £4bn acquisition of the Swedish group Skandia, which doubled the size of the Group, making it a top 50 FTSE company, with insurance, banking and asset management businesses.

I was Financial Controller for the European life and general insurance businesses. As such, my role included leading the divisional approach to IFRS conversion and European Embedded Value, while introducing a pragmatic approach to Group reporting for smaller businesses.