Stacy Penn has worked in the financial services industry for over ten years. Starting out as a high net worth insurance broker, she joined The Association of Mortgage Intermediaries (AMI) in 2019 to develop the organisation’s work in the GI and protection space. AMI is a regulatory and lobbying trade body that represents mortgage intermediary firms. Some of her work at AMI includes the annual Viewpoint survey and helping firms to navigate and implement the FCA’s Consumer Duty. In her spare time she likes cooking, going to the gym and playing for her beloved local netball team.

Claire Ginnelly has been in the private medical insurance industry since 1991, starting her PMI career with Norwich Union Healthcare when they launched into the market. She then joined WPA before moving to Standard Life Healthcare for 12 years where she became Head of Intermediary Sales. She moved to Groupama Healthcare in 2007 as Head of Distribution.

In June 2013, Claire moved to the intermediary side and joined Premier Choice Group as Head of Healthcare and became Managing Director in June 2015. Premier Choice was acquired by GRP in 2020 and Claire stayed to oversee the transition before leaving in February 2022.

Claire remains active in the PMI industry doing consultancy work, continuing to be an industry spokesperson and is Vice Chair of the Association of Medical Insurers and Intermediaries (AMII).

Alan Lakey has been gainfully occupied in the industry since 1978. He's been a financial adviser since 1986 and started the acclaimed CIExpert system in 2012. He is an ex-Director of Adviser Alliance and an ex-Council member of APFA. He also spent eight unhappy years working for an assortment of insurers and distributors and is the winner of 20 awards for advisory excellence. He is the author of Growing Old Disgracefully, a biography of seminal ‘60s rock band The Pretty Things and recently wrote ‘Idiocy in Commercial Life: Practical Ways to Navigate Through Nonsense'.

John Brazier is an experienced and award winning B2B journalist and editor. He has been editor of COVER since February 2021 and has chaired several protection industry conferences and events.

John was previously editor of The Trade, a buy-side publication for a readership of global asset managers, hedge funds and traders. Prior to this, John spent three years with WatersTechnology, a fintech publication with a global audience, where he held roles of European staff writer and then deputy editor, working across the buy- and sell-side brands of the title.

He has also written for a number of energy, personal finance and technology brands, and has personal interests in literature, technology and environmental issues.

After originally joining financial services as a web programmer, Alan was quickly tempted by the dark side of financial services and became a protection adviser. Alan now runs Cura, a multi award-winning protection intermediary, specialising in hard-to-place protection cases, such as people with health conditions. Alan is also the current Chair of the Protection Distributors Group (PDG), member of the Executive team at the Income Protection Taskforce (IPTF) and member of the Access to Insurance Working Party.

Nicola is a highly accomplished professional in the financial services industry, with more than 17 years of experience in the field. She co-founded the Dunham McCarthy Group in 2011, which now employs over 45 legal and financial specialists in its insurance, solicitors and mortgage divisions.

Nicola and her team's dedication to putting clients at the centre of their operations have earned them several accolades, including the prestigious Legal & General Business Quality Award for 2022.

Additionally, Nicola has a substantial social media presence and has been featured in prominent media outlets such as the BBC and Channel 4, among others.

David has over 20 years of experience within the industry and founded the company 11 years ago based on wanting to provide clients with quality, clear and friendly advice. He believes that a client relationship is on-going rather than transactional and the company has been positioned to help clients adjust their protection cover to reflect their changing circumstances. David is responsible for the company’s adviser teams and operation activities.

Jo Miller has been a part of IPTF since 2013 working on the Seven Families campaign and providing operational support to members eventually becoming Co-Chair in 2021. Outside of the IPTF, Jo has worked for Protection Review since 2010, latterly as Director of Operations overseeing the running of digital and face to face events and also provides operational support to the Protection Distributors Group. Jo previously worked as an Operations and Account Manager for the Financial Services practice at EY and before that for an international events company.

Isaac is the Founder of Lifepoint Healthcare and has been advises clients on the complexities of the healthcare market as well as a regular press contributor. Isaac is a published author having recently written a book called ‘An Essential Guide to Health Insurance for Companies’ - an information guide to assist businesses make informed choices on employee benefits. Isaac is also an Executive Committee Member of The Association of Medical Insurers & Intermediaries. Isaac’s firm has recently been named: Winner – Best Adviser for Individual Healthcare @ The Health Insurance Awards 2020. He is passionate about our industry and committed to helping protect companies and individuals with tailored insurance solutions from the physical and financial distress caused by serious illness, injury, accident and death. Isaac also serves as a volunteer with the Blind and Disabled. He lives in North London with his wife Debbie and their three children.

Alan has worked for insurers and brokers throughout the insurance sector since 1997. Since joining LifeSearch in 2014 he has devoted his energies to driving great advice to the business owner community and developing understanding of financial resilience across the financial services sector. He will retire happy if he succeeds in breaking down the needless barriers between general insurance and protection brokers.

He balances out being a protection geek by playing Dungeons and Dragon, painting war miniatures and developing excel spreadsheets.

Jiten has been in Financial Services since October 2000. Starting in a Call Centre for a Fund Supermarket, he quickly worked his way up to become a Financial Adviser for one of the larger UK Banks. Following redundancy, he has worked as an Independent Financial, Mortgage and Protection Adviser since February 2013.

By understanding the role that Financial Planning plays in the daily life of a client, Jiten strives to deliver Simple, Smart Advice in plain and clear English. His advice is tailored to the unique needs of each client, and when required will implement solutions to help ensure they can achieve their personal and financial goals.

Amongst his many qualifications, he holds the Chartered Insurance Institute’s Certificate in Advance Mortgage Advice and has featured in the top 250 UK IFA’s in The Sunday Times.

Jiten brings with him experience in Mortgage Planning together with a speciality in providing bespoke Lifestyle Protection Planning.

With 35 years of financial services experience, Angela started her career at Barclays Bank, working 22 years before furthering her career as an independent mortgage and protection adviser. Becoming a business development manager at Royal London in 2014, and with Zurich in 2018, Angela started her own company ‘Passion for Protection’ in 2019 in which she provided protection sales training. Now in her role as Head of Protection at Mortgage Intelligence, her mission is to continue supporting advisers by fuelling great protection conversations that will result in more clients being protected. An avid reader, Ted Talks follower and lifelong learner.

Vikki joined the intermediated market in 2013, leading the proposition in Personal Touch Financial services, successfully developing the proposition across mortgage, protection and general insurance product lines, increasing both choice and value to deliver market leading panels.

Since Personal Touch was acquired by the LSL group in early 2018 Vikki has taken responsibility for proposition across the spectrum of LSL network brands. In addition to proposition and relationship management she is also responsible for the PRIMIS events programme and the Product Desk team within the business. In 2022 Vikki was appointed to the LSL Financial Services Exec team, demonstrating her enhanced contribution to the wider financial services division, which is now front and centre of the LSL group strategy.

Prior to her time at LSL Vikki spent 14 years at Endsleigh Insurance contributing in a variety of roles from sales management, business development and product design.

Christine is the Managing Director of RedArc, a specialist company providing personalised, long-term help and support to employees, individuals and families suffering from serious illness, disability or bereavement, through its team of highly qualified, registered nurses.

RedArc was the first company to address the non-financial needs of protection customers and their families, something now integral to the majority of protection products in the group and individual markets. RedArc supports people via key protection players such as Royal London, Scottish Widows, Legal & General, Canada Life, AIG Life, Aviva and Aegon as well as via intermediaries and organisations in other sectors such as the Federation of Small Businesses and Unite trade union.

RedArc’s expertise covers a wide range of conditions including cancer, mental health, trauma, cardiac conditions as well as long-term conditions such as Parkinson’s, Diabetes and Long Covid.

Specialist service features include Practical Help at Home, Face-to-Face Second Medical Opinion, Private Consultations and a wide range of specialised External Therapies addressing specific physical and mental health needs.

Christine spent the initial part of her career in financial roles within the chemical industry before moving into financial services. Since then, Christine has held several directorships and is a Chartered Director and a Fellow of the Institute of Directors.

Speaking of RedArc, Christine has said she is “proud to be helping so many people at often the most difficult times of their lives, whilst at the same time adding value to a wide range of clients across all market sectors.”

Originally a pharmacist, Marcia has 30 years of experience in health and wellbeing, working within organisations including Bupa, SimplyHealth, Lorica and as a service improvement consultant within the NHS.

Marcia was Managing Director of the Health and Protection Division with the independent intermediary Stackhouse Poland, prior to their acquisition by Gallagher in 2019. Last year she revitalised her consultancy and led a business transformation project with an intermediary organisation. She is currently non executive director with Sherwood Healthcare and building her executive coaching practice. Additionally, Marcia served on the executive committee of AMII for three years. She is a Prince 2 practitioner, Change Management Practitioner, a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and serves on the Policy Voice Group at the Institute of Directors, keeping her finger on the pulse with market developments.

Emma Vaughan has worked in the financial services industry for over 16 years, beginning at L&G as an admin assistant before progressing to work directly with intermediaries in range of protection roles and supported various regions, networks and brokers. She joined British Friendly in 2016 as a National Account Manager for the North East, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, as well as holding the strategic relationships for some the major networks. Emma has more recently been involved in the strategic development of propositions designed to bridge the gap for customers who previously may not have had access to insurance. Emma's role as a Head of Protection Services is to develop the protection proposition for SimplyBiz and Compliance First advisers by working closely with all the product and software providers, adding efficiencies and enhancing the support within all the services available to intermediaries. Emma is passionate about educating customers and delivering better customer outcomes.

Steve has over thirty years’ experience working in the life insurance market in the UK, Europe and the Far East. A Chartered Insurer, he has been responsible for some of the more innovative developments within the protection market specifically wrapping around the customer. Originally trained as an underwriter, Steve has extensive experience of working in product development, distribution management and risk assessment. He is the current Chairman of ILAG and a Advisory Board member for LegaCare.

Robyn is a one of a kind. She started her career in financial services 17 years ago and has spent that time carving her own path to firstly, becoming a confident adviser that wanted to support not only her clients, but other advisers and individuals within the industry. Then she made the decision to move to The Openwork Partnership and become a Partnership Development Manager to be able to support even more advisers in becoming awesome! Her energy and enthusiasm are infectious, and her use of TikTok & LinkedIn to create a new type of content within the industry have inspired many others to be more of themselves and less of who they think they should be.

For her, the people come first, whether that’s customers or other people in her world. Everyone is treated as an individual and is the focus of the conversation, because without finding out what makes a person tick you can’t give them the best advice. Robyn is an incredibly active member of her local community as well. She is a school governor and the current President of the Northamptonshire & Milton Keynes Chambers of Commerce.’

Debra is the head of specialist consulting at Towergate Health & Protection. She has been in the employee benefits industry for over 25 years now, working in a number of specialist intermediaries. In all roles she has been dedicated to delivering first-class service to clients to ensure maximum retention and growth. She is passionate about mental health and all forms of wellbeing, particularly in the workplace as she strongly believes that people are any business's best asset and can ensure the success of a company if they are well. She is on the Board of Trustees for her local Relate centre and also National Relate supporting the business and charity to help more people be better with their relationships. Debra has been recognised for her commitment to mental health by Cover magazine in their 2022 annual awards, winning the Mental Health and Wellbeing Champion category.

Paul is one of the Directors and Co-Founders of protection Specialist firm Vita. He’s worked within Financial Services for over 20 years, and specifically within the Protection space for over 13 years. A passionate advocate of Claims and Customer Outcomes, Paul and business partner Barry Pappin are relentless in ensuring their business is built around the customer being at the heart of all that Vita do