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.’

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.

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.

Tom Conner is a co-founder of Drewberry, the London and Brighton based award winning financial advisory business specialising in both individual and group health and protection. Tom was also a founding board member of the Protection Distributors Group (PDG).

Consultant and campaigner for next generation life and health insurance design for better customer and adviser experience. Top mission is ensuring life cover money gets to the intended person.

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).

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.

Kathryn is a specialist adviser for personal, business and group life insurance, critical illness cover and income protection, within the UK and internationally. Kathryn provides training, videos and podcast that are used within the insurance sector, charities and the public, as a way to educate about ways to access insurance.

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'.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Robert helped establish the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries (AMI) as an independent entity on 1 February 2012. Robert joined the former parent trade body, AIFA, in October 2006, initially looking after the Association of Finance Brokers and since 2008, AMI. He lobbies government, regulators and other policy-makers, liaising with fellow trade bodies and briefing the national and trade press.

He brings a wealth of industry experience to the trade body having held a number of front line sales roles in personal, private and corporate banking combined with experience in marketing, training and internal audit with both HSBC and Santander.

Robert served five years as a non-executive director of the Buckinghamshire Building Society, is now a non-executive director of the Darlington Building Society and advises the Bank of England as a member of the Residential Property Forum.

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.

Andy has been in the industry for over 30 years – and starting selling protection aged 18 with London & Manchester…He went on to work for L&G and AEGON on the protection side of their business’s which led him to then work in the intermediary world. He has been head of sales at PTFS, Protection Sales Director at Intrinsic and for the past 6 years Protection Proposition Director at MAB. Protection became his passion and Andy continues to champion the best customer experience and outcomes across the industry. Since joining MAB in 2017, Andy has implemented an award winning protection process , and also created B&C InstantQuote for buildings & contents. His motto is – if you only think about protection when you’re in trouble – then you’re in trouble!

Chelsea is Head of Financial Protection at SPF Private Clients and on the board of the PDG. After entering the mortgage industry straight from university, she “fell” into a protection adviser role and never looked back. With almost a decade of experience in the Protection industry in the UK and overseas, Chelsea now specialises in mortgage related and private client protection processes. Chelsea is a mental health first aider and a member of the SPF ESG committee, both areas she is extremely passionate about