Royal London group CEO quits
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Royal London group chief executive Mike Yardley (pictured) is stepping down after 12 years in the role.
Yardley, who has been group chief executive since 1998, will continue in the job until a replacement is appointed.
The Royal London board has appointed a recruitment firm to find his successor and the group says internal and external candidates will be considered.
The group is due to publish its interim results on Tuesday.
Yardley says: “Having been CEO of Royal London for over 12 years, I have decided the time is now right for me to announce that I will be leaving the company once my successor has been appointed. I am confident that Royal London is in an excellent position to continue to grow profitably for the benefit of our members and I believe this is an appropriate time to start the search for the person to lead the company in its next phase of development.
“On leaving Royal London I hope to use my experience to help the life assurance and asset management industry tackle the many challenges ahead.”
Royal London chairman Tim Melville-Ross says: “When Mike was appointed CEO in 1998, Royal London was a home service provider with a high cost base and a diminishing franchise. Mike built a strong executive team and, through a series of transactions and a robust approach to cost control and business development, Royal London has now become a strongly capitalised, diversified group offering quality products and services to its members and customers. Royal London, its customers and members have every reason to be grateful for what he has achieved.
“Mike is an outstanding CEO who has transformed Royal London into the successful and well-regarded organisation it is today. To ensure an orderly transition, Mike will continue as group chief executive until a successor is appointed.”
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Readers' comments (7)
Julian Stevens | 27 Aug 2010 11:58 am
If things at Royal London are all going so swimmingly well, why is he leaving just now? They never reveal that in the press releases, do they?
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Kevin Grannersby | 27 Aug 2010 12:57 pm
@Julian Stevens - well, perhaps he just wants to do something else. There doesn't have to be a conspiracy behind everything, you know.
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Mister Maker | 27 Aug 2010 4:25 pm
@Julian Stevens - too much Dan Brown over the summer?
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Anonymous | 31 Aug 2010 10:07 am
So what impact does this have on the potential 'merger' with Royal Liver?
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Mike Lacey | 31 Aug 2010 3:47 pm
The company has been transformed under Mike Yardley, who is in his mid / late 50s with a young family. Why not just assume that he has enough money to live on and has a big enough pension, plus his long term incentive plan sums due?
I do wonder how much profit was made by te Group when they merged with, for example, Scottish Life. The SL Officers Retirement Benefits Scheme had a very healthy surplus but members now have to pay towards the scheme ( or see reduced accrual. )
The surplus would have made a nice contribution to the Groups P&L account.
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Anonymous | 31 Aug 2010 9:21 pm
Don't Royal London have a tie-in with Santander who recently announced a new link with Aviva?
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Cindy Lam | 16 Dec 2010 12:07 pm
I worked for Royal London for a brief period, but was there long enough to see the utter mess it was in. Customer services were getting people's annuity figures wrong. When you chase up on them, audit trail shows a number of people leaving the organisation adn you can never find the answers. My team of investigative accountants have left one by one all within a period of a few months, no doubt have glimpsed a sinking boat.
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