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Masters and Wardens


FOUNDER MASTER

 
W C Harris

The Founder Master was William Cecil (Bill) Harris. Born in 1913, Bill worked all his life with the Phoenix Group of Companies, retiring in 1984, having completed 55 years with the Group. He worked in both the United States and the UK and was appointed Chief General Manager in 1969. He retired as Chief Executive in 1978 but remained on the Phoenix Board as Deputy Chairman until 1984. Bill served two terms as Master of the Worshipful Company of Insurers. He died on 7 May 1999.

Masters of the Company to date have been:

1979 W C Harris
1980 W C Harris
1981 D V Palmer, DL
1982 R I Sloan, CBE
1983 A W Higgins, MBE, MC, TD, JP, DL
1984 J A S Neave, CBE, JP, DL
1985 F R D Holland
1986 D A Blaikie, OBE
1987 J R Redfern
1988 R H Peet, CBE
1989 P R Dugdale, CBE
1990 R K Bishop
1991 R C W Bardell, OBE
1992 J S Greig
1993 T Roberts, CBE
1994 W J Briggs
1995 B V Day, OBE
1996 C P Harris
1997 J E Phillips
1998 P H Purchon
1999 M J Pickard
2000 D R Losse
2001 P G Ward
2002 C A Hart
2003 M K Bewes
2004 A P D Lancaster
2005 R J Taylor
2006 D E Bland, OBE
2007 G V Doswell
2008 M W Cooper-Mitchell

 

The Officers for 2009/2010 are:- 

THE MASTER

Graeme King is a Scottish Chartered Accountant who is currently the Chair of the Audit Committee of the Rank Foundation and Chairman of the Hydro Hotel Eastbourne.

Working within the industry for most of his full time career, Graeme was Managing Director of Beaufort and Proteus, P&O's insurance companies, and spent ten years at Lloyd's including being General Manager Regulation and a spell debt collecting from Lloyd's Names.

Graeme is married to Dr. Susan Hobbins, a full time Consultant Paediatrician and Senior Officer of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and they live in Otford, Kent. They enjoy country living and take an active part in their community. Graeme is Chairman of the Board of Finance of The Rochester Anglican Diocese and Sue enjoys amateur dramatics.

They have two adult 'children’, Emily, a paediatric nurse at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada and Andrew, a junior doctor at Trafford General Hospital in Manchester.

Sue, Graeme, Emily and Andrew have dual citizenship, British and Canadian, as 1974 to 1984 saw them in Toronto where the children were born. They return there regularly to a cottage on the Muskoka Lakes.

Walking and golf are Graeme’s two major interests and, as a past Captain of WIGS, Graeme much enjoys the social side of Livery golf. He regularly pops up to Scotland for golf and mountaineering, reconnecting with his roots in Broughty Ferry, Dundee High School and St Andrews University.

  

THE SENIOR WARDEN

Clive Haslock FCA, FCILA, is a Chartered Accountant and Chartered Loss Adjuster who is Chairman of Haslocks Limited, a firm of forensic accountants and claims consultants he founded in 1991 in the City of London. He trained as an accountant with Touche Ross & Co in London and Chicago.  His interest in forensic accounting was kindled in Chicago where he was fortunate to work on Business Interruption cases instructed by a major US carrier.  Luck followed him and upon his return to London he was able to secure European business for Touche from the US carrier.

It was a natural progression to move to Thomas Howell Selfe, Chartered Loss Adjusters, where he became a board director until he founded Haslocks.

He is a member of the Academy of Experts and sits on three committees of the Fraud Advisory Panel.

Clive is fully committed to the ethos of the Livery as being for life, not a transitory interest during business years.  He was pleased to be Chairman of the Livery Committee in its formative years and is delighted to see the Committee’s activities thrive under the successor Chairmen, Harry Driver and James Peace.  He urges all members to support the Committee’s activities and in particular their initiative to attract younger new entrants to our Livery.

His primary interest is his time consuming family; the little time remaining is for golf, which he plays badly but knows when to pick up and race circuit driving his drophead classic car, (for avoidance of doubt not racing) particularly Le Mans, Goodwood and Brands Hatch.

 

THE JUNIOR WARDEN

Tim Ablett is a Chartered Accountant but has spent most of his working life in the Insurance industry, firstly as a Lloyds’ auditor specialising in Lloyds’ brokers then as a Group Financial Controller of Wigham Poland before joining in 1986 The Legal Protection Group Limited/International Assistance Services where he was Managing Director. When LPG/IAS was acquired by Sun Alliance he moved to the North West  to take responsibility for Sun Alliance UK Broker Personal Lines Division in 1990 merging this with Bradford Pennine where he became Chief Executive and with Royal Insurance Broker Personal Lines in 1996.

Tim then went to Bournemouth to head up a newly created business within RSA – the Healthcare & Assistance Division where he brought together a variety of healthcare products and businesses into a single entity. He was enticed away to joining Groupama UK where he held the role of Managing Director for 4 years before taking the opportunity to lead a private equity backed buy out of the RSA Healthcare & Assistance business he had previously built. He headed the renamed business - FirstAssist - as CEO, restructuring the business, selling the PMI business, reducing costs and creating two new businesses for its private equity owners.

Having stepped down as CEO Tim started his plural career as a Non Executive Director of the two FirstAssist companies and is now Chairman of Age Concern Enterprises/In Tune Limited, Chairman of Premier Occupational Healthcare Limited, Non Executive Director of Garwyn Group Limited (loss adjusters), Hastings Insurance Services and FirstAssist Services Limited.

Tim is married to Ann and they have three adult children – Justin, Davinia and Tarrant. When not fulfilling his business and Livery commitments Tim likes relaxing in their house in the Vendee region of France enjoying a glass of fine wine.   

 

 

Tel: 020 7600 4006
Fax: 020 7972 0153
Email: enquiries@wci.org.uk

 
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