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Karen Miller was elected to the Council as an executive director in March 2024, at which time her position on the Council became ex officio and thus she is not elected by the membership. As Chief Executive, Karen is responsible for leading MPS to execute on the strategy agreed with Council.

Karen has extensive experience in the insurance sector in South Africa and the UK, in senior executive roles. She joined MPS from Saga Insurance, where she served as Chief Operations Officer, helping build a more efficient organisation without compromising customer service. Among her previous roles, Karen was the Chief Executive Officer at ABSA General Insurance and Chief Underwriting officer at Mutual and Federal Insurance Company, a part of the Old Mutual Group.

She has Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Commerce and Master of business administration degrees. Karen also has a Fellowship from Insurance Institute of South Africa with an Advanced Diploma in Insurance.

Executive Director of People and Culture

Lisa Davis joined MPS in March 2023 and has responsibility for our People and Culture strategy across our global business. These aim to develop highly engaged and technically excellent people, working in a positive, diverse and inclusive workplace. She has a strong track record of delivering exceptional workplace culture and business transformation, complemented by financial analytical capability.

Lisa has over 20 years’ expertise in the Financial Services sector and joins us from Just Group PLC, where she was Group Chief People Officer. Prior to this, Lisa worked at Skipton Building Society as their Group Chief People Officer, leading their business to achieving Investors in People Platinum status (awarded to only 0.5% of UK organisation), 3-Star rating as UK’s 25 Best Big Companies and one the 30 Best Companies to work for in Financial Services. She originally worked for EY and PA Consulting before moving into internal HR roles at Santander, Aviva and npower.

Lisa is also Vice Chair of the Board of the HM Treasury Women in Finance Charter.

Executive Director of Finance

Richard Pile joined MPS in May 2021 and was elected to the MPS Council as an executive director in July 2023.

As Finance Director, he is responsible for the leadership of the Finance Division, providing strategic guidance and oversight on MPS’s finance, investments, business information, procurement and facilities.

Richard has over 17 years of financial services experience in a variety of leadership roles including strategic portfolio planning, financial and management reporting, and operational.

Prior to joining MPS, Richard was Chief Financial Officer at Royal Sun Alliance (RSA) Luxembourg – the European arm of RSA Group. He spent 7 years at RSA in various senior finance roles, and prior to this, worked at Hyperion Insurance Group supporting its global expansion as Head of Group Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A) and Reporting. Richard started his career at Grant Thornton, where he qualified as an accountant, working within its financial services practice.

General Counsel

As General Counsel, David is responsible for providing and obtaining legal advice on a wide range of corporate legal issues affecting the MPS group. He is a director of the MPS Periodical Payments Trust and the company secretary for MPS, MPI and MPSrs. He is also secretary to the Ethics Committee of Council.

David obtained a law degree at Leeds University in the UK before completing his Law Society finals at the College of Law at Lancaster Gate London.

He qualified as a solicitor in 1990 in private practice and then moved in-house. Before joining MPS in June 2011, he spent over 20 years as in-house counsel in the IT, finance, banking and not for profit sectors including roles at international organisations and UK and US listed companies.

Chief Risk Officer

Mark Chaplin joined MPS in September 2023. He is responsible for fostering a strong, member-focused risk culture across the business, which ensures our financial and operational risk requirements are met.

Prior to taking up this role at MPS, Mark spent over 25 years developing, delivering and embedding risk management, governance and regulatory compliance across complex and multi-location organisations within the insurance and financial services sectors.

He joins MPS from Aviva plc, where he was Group Enterprise Risk Director, leading the work to build a world-class approach to risk management, and Chief Risk Officer for Aviva’s internal reinsurance businesses and for the UK Life & Pensions and UK General Insurance businesses.

Executive Director of Member Experience, Digital and Change

Jonathan Vardon joined MPS in August 2023. He has significant experience in leading large, complex transformational initiatives, identifying digital opportunities to improve the customer journey and enabling the digitalisation of the businesses he has worked in. In his role as Executive Director of Member Experience, Digital and Change, he is responsible for developing our technology vision, architecture and roadmap, driving our cyber security agenda, and establishing a foundation of technology for digital growth in MPS.

Jonathan’s career includes a number of senior roles in the digital and technology space with a range of national and multinational organisations including Co-operative Group, Provident Finance Group, Boots UK and UST, a leading international provider of IT solutions.

He is also a former independent Member of Board of Governors and Chairman of the Sustainability and Resources Committee at Staffordshire University.