The Awards Judging Panel

Please see below for the judging panel.

Nick Baker - General Manager, director, Adventis NMG Resources

Nick is a marketing professional with more than 20 years’ experience in financial services, including financial services consultancy and client-side experience in blue-chip companies such as Barclays and Aetna, and agency experience with clients spanning banking, life offices, insurers and investment companies. He has expertise in strategic marketing and marketing communications, brand development and design of propositions, products and customer experiences. Nick is an associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute.

Danby Bloch - Managing director, Taxbriefs Financial Publishing

Danby has written three books on financial planning and innumerable articles for the UK national and trade press. He is also a regular lecturer and trainer on tax and financial subjects. Taxbriefs Financial Publishing produces many of the UK’s Chartered Insurance Institute’s examination learning texts and also customises newsletters and other publications for financial advisers and accountants. Danby is chairman of London IFAs Helm Godfrey and has been in financial services for over 30 years. He is also Pro-Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University, which awarded him an honorary doctorate in 2004.

Ray Boulger - Senior technical manager, Charcol

Ray is aged 63 and has spent all his working life in financial services, initially 5 years training with a firm of Chartered Accountants and then 18 years as a stockbroker. He joined John Charcol in 1989 as a consultant and has been Technical Manager, then Senior Technical Manager for 10 years.

He is on the Board of AMI (Association of Mortgage Intermediaries), having been a founder member, is a former Mayor of East Grinstead and is married with 4 children and 8 grandchildren.

Andy Couchman - Managing director, Bank House Communications

Andy is a commentator and consultant on the health and protection and mortgage markets. He has written a number of books and reports and works on strategy and communications with many of the leading names in these sectors.

Maggie Craig - Director of Life and Savings, Association of British Insurers

Maggie Craig joined the ABI in July 2007, from Standard Life Assurance Ltd. Maggie had two stints at Standard Life, as Head of Pensions Policy from 1989-2000 and as Head of Public Affairs and Communication from 2003-2007. In between, she was Pensions Development Manager for Scottish Equitable. All these roles involved a wide variety of lobbying, policy and media work.

Maggie has been in financial services since graduating from Glasgow University in 1979. She has worked for an employee benefits consultancy, as an IFA and on secondment to the Department of Work and Pensions, as well as for Standard Life and Scottish Equitable. Her knowledge and experience of financial services and pensions policy issues is extensive.

Maggie has put that experience to excellent use on several ABI committees and working groups, and she represented the ABI as a member of Alan Pickering’s pensions simplification review team. She has also contributed to many other legislative and regulatory consultations, including the Pensions Act 1995 and the FSA’s Treating Customers Fairly.

Maggie is married with several daughters and a variety of animals.

Huw Davies - MBA, BSC and Chartered Financial Planner

Huw is now in his 20th year in the financial services industry and has spent the last six developing the corporate benefits service of Baigrie Davies. In 2006 he gained an MBA from the University of Liverpool with a thesis focused on employee appreciation of the benefits package. He has worked with a wide range of corporate clients on their benefits packages with a particular focus on protection policies.

Jonathan Fry - Chief executive, Wills & Co

Jonathan joined Wills & Co, a leading independent private client stockbroker and smaller company specialist, in February 2007. Previously, he was founder and managing director of fund manager Premier Asset Management. While at Premier he was responsible for both the management of investment portfolios and funds, as well as for the development of new products. Jonathan started his investment career as a private client portfolio manager with a London based brokerage in 1984, having completed an honours degree in Business. He holds the IIMR Investment Management Certificate.

Chris Gilchrist - Editor, The IRS Report

Chris Gilchrist is a financial journalist, author and editor with over 30 years’ experience in this field. He entered financial journalism from university in 1970 and has written extensively for national newspapers and magazines including the Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, Investors Chronicle and Sunday Times and contributed to personal finance series on BBC Radio 4, BBC1 and Channel 4. He was editorial director of What Investment and associated magazines and newsletters from 1982 to 1988. Chris edits an investment newsletter, The IRS Report, and is a director of Churchill Investments plc, a firm of independent financial advisers he co-founded in 1996.

Lawrence Gosling - Group editorial director, Incisive Media

Lawrence Gosling is the group editorial director of Incisive Media and the founding editor of Investment Week, for which he stills writes a weekly column, Gosling's Grouse. He was also the launch editor of IFAonline, and Mortgage Solutions, Cover and Bloomberg Money magazines, and one of the original judges for the Gold Standards.

Malcolm Kerr - Director, Ernst & Young

Malcolm Kerr is a director within Ernst & Young's UK Financial Services division providing advice to the key providers in the life, pensions and retail investment markets and to major intermediaries. Before moving into professional services some 10 years ago, Malcolm held a number of senior executive and board positions in the industry including IFA director at Canada Life(UK), vice-president of MetLife (US) and chairman of Albany International (IOM). Ernst & Young is a global leader in assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services with 130,000 staff worldwide.

Mike Morrison - Strategy pension manager, Winterthur Life

Mike joined Winterthur in 1990 and is Winterthur Life strategy pension manager.
In his role at Winterthur Life, Mike liases with various industry bodies with regard to developing pension products and their accessibility to consumers. He is on the Money Purchase sub-committee and the committee of the Association of Member Directed Pension Schemes (AMPS), in addition to being an Associate of the Pensions Management Institute.He is a regular speaker at industry events and in the past has spoken for SIFA, IFP, ASIM amongst others.

Helen Morrissey - Editor, Retirement Planner

Helen had edited Retirement Planner magazine since August 2006. Prior to this she was features editor on Professional Pensions the leading weekly institutional pensions title for more than two years.

Mike Richards - Chairman, Capital City Media

Mike started his advertising career as a messenger at McCann Erickson in 1975. He has since progressed, although still happy to deliver things for clients, and now is the chairman of Capital City Media. This will be the fifth year Mike has judged the Gold Standard awards and he is still waiting for the new carpet Lawrence Gosling promised when it all started. He has also helped out on other Incisive Media activities including fetching Tim Weller’s dry cleaning for four successive years. Mike is scared of thunder and pigeons. He owns a season ticket to Bayern Munich Football Club.

Deborah Benn, Chair

Deborah devised the concept for the Gold Standard Awards. She has contributed to a range of publications worldwide and is the author of How to Maximise Your Wealth Offshore. Deborah edited Financial Times Magazine's Investment Adviser and she is the ex-editor of Incisive Media's International Investment magazine. Deborah currently works on a range of financial newsletters and magazines as well as conference and awards’ programmes.