Barry O’Dwyer will become group chief executive of the Royal London Mutual Insurance Society in September 2019, subject to regulatory approval.
He succeeds Phil Loney who will stand down on 28 June after leading the business for seven years.
It marks a further change at the top, as chairman Kevin Parry only assumed his role on 1 January.
Between Loney’s departure and O’Dwyer’s arrival, Parry will take on some of the chief executive’s responsibilities.
Unstinting commitment
Describing the selection process as “rigorous”, Parry said O’Dwyer’s “vision for our industry, coupled with extensive experience of retail and wholesale pension and savings products, will allow him to build on Royal London’s existing market position”.
He also thanked Loney for his “unstinting commitment to the development of Royal London”, as he led “seven years of major change in our business reflecting the introduction of pension freedoms and workplace pensions”.
Curriculum Vitae
O’Dwyer started his career at Standard Life in 1988, where he trained and qualified as an actuary and held a number of senior management positions in the UK and Ireland.
He left the firm in 2007 to join HBOS and moved to Prudential in 2009, rising to deputy chief executive of its UK and Europe business before returning to Standard Life in 2013.
In March 2017, O’Dwyer became chief executive of pensions & savings and joined the board of Standard Life.
Following the merger with Aberdeen Asset Management and the sale of Standard Life Assurance to Phoenix Group, he became head of Standard Life Aberdeen’s UK business embracing pensions and savings, platforms and asset management.
He also joined the Board of Phoenix Group as a non-executive director.
