Fiona McBain will be stepping down as chief executive of Scottish Friendly at the end of the year.
In her 11 years at the helm of the mutual, its assets have grown more than 500 per cent and new business has swelled over 400 per cent, to £2.5bn and £29m respectively, while membership has increased by more than 100,000 to nearly 500,000.
Deputy chief executive Jim Galbraith has been appointed to take over from Ms McBain on 1 January 2017.
Ms McBain said: “I am extremely proud of what we have achieved together at Scottish Friendly.
“With a great staff of less than 100 people, our strategy has reaped huge rewards in terms of assets and scale for Scottish Friendly policyholders.
“Jim has been a key player in all aspects of our success and I know he will lead the team to continue to build the business for the benefit of Scottish Friendly’s policyholders.”
During her time at the helm of Scottish Friendly, the mutual developed several new product lines, including the Child Trust Fund, a wrap platform and a Sipp.
It has also grown through mergers such as the largest friendly society takeover in the UK in 2007 of Scottish Legal Life and most recently the takeover of M&GM Mutual in 2015.
Mr Galbraith said: “Fiona has been at the helm of Scottish Friendly through one of the most difficult periods in the history of the financial services industry.
“It is a testament to her patience, strategic vision and her ability to inspire others that over this period the Scottish Friendly Group has continued to strengthen and grow.
“Succeeding Fiona is going to be hard but I look forward to working with everyone at Scottish Friendly to continue to develop the Group’s ‘innovate, diversify and grow’ strategy.”
Michael Walker, chairman of Scottish Friendly, said: “We respect and understand Fiona’s decision after 11 years in charge to look for new opportunities and challenges but we shall still miss her.
“We are delighted that Jim Galbraith, with whom Fiona has worked for so long, has agreed to become our new chief executive and we are looking forward to continuing to develop the business of Scottish Friendly under his leadership.”
