Our industry experts
Meet the team:
Francis McGee,
Head of Corporate Affairs
Francis joined AEGON in 2005 from the Association of British Insurers. He previously worked for the Personal Investment Authority, Bank of England and the Treasury. He’s responsible for ensuring that the interests of AEGON and our customers are represented to the government, Parliament, the Financial Services Authority and other key stakeholders.
Rachel Vahey,
Head of Pensions Development
Rachel analyses, speaks on and writes about developments in pensions legislation. She also comments on pensions for the financial press. Rachel was closely involved in pensions simplification and is now working on pensions reform and the introduction of personal accounts – lobbying for change, talking to advisers giving an overview of the proposals and what they mean in practical terms, and examining what the future world of pensions will look like.
Steven Cameron,
Head of Business Regulation
Steven leads the analysis of a wide range of emerging regulatory and legislative developments, identifying potential impacts on our industry in general and on AEGON in particular. He was involved in AEGON’s lobbying activities on polarisation reform, the stakeholder suite, contracting out and ‘RU64’. More recently, he’s concentrated on the Retail Distribution Review, projections and disclosure and AEGON’s response to Treating Customers Fairly. He’s a member of a number of industry committees.
Peter Williams,
Head of Industry Development
Peter concentrates on advice, education and pension advice issues. A former chairman of the Society of Financial Advisers, he’s also been a national vice- president of the Chartered Insurance Institute, a board member of the Life Insurance Association, and vice-president of the Personal Finance Society. He's currently the chairman of the CII’s Examiners Committee. Peter’s passion for the value of advice and advisers, and his commitment to professionalism is universally recognised within the market. He also sits of a wide range of industry groups and committees.
Alison Gay,
Senior Business Regulation Consultant
Alison’s focus is on political and legislative analysis and lobbying. She has worked on consultations relating to projections and disclosure, depolarisation and regulatory reform. She has a particular interest in the increasingly important field of European legislation, working with colleagues in the UK and AEGON's team in Brussels. This has involved work such as coordinating AEGON's input into the European Commission's Green Paper on Financial Services in the Single Market, interpreting the implications for the UK of various European Directives, and looking forward to other European initiatives which may affect the industry in the future.
Kate Smith,
Consultant Pensions Development
Kate joined AEGON Scottish Equitable in August 2006 having worked for a number of pension organisations, including PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and Mercers HR Consulting as an employee benefits consultant analysing the impact of pension legislation and advising trustees. She also implemented pension tax simplification for a large in-house pension scheme. Kate is the Treasurer of the PMI Scottish Regional Group. At AEGON Scottish Equitable, Kate’s focus will be to analyse pensions developments emitting from the Government; understand their impact and communicate these effectively to our customers.
Mark Stockwell,
Corporate Affairs Officer
Mark joined AEGON in August 2006 from the energy regulator Ofgem. Previously he was a researcher and policy adviser with the Conservative Party, and he has also worked for a niche political consultancy. He’s responsible for building relationships and communications with Parliament, the political parties, think tanks and other political audiences.
Douglas Herdman,
Senior Business Regulation Analyst
Douglas joined the team in November 2006, having previously worked in an actuarial role on the life assurance side of the business. His main responsibility is to provide financial and numerical analysis to quantify the impact of regulatory and legislative developments on AEGON and the industry.
Sue Sneddon,
Employee Benefits Technical Manager
Sue analyses and speaks on developments in the group risk industry, sits on the management committee of the group risk industry body, GRiD, and currently chairs its regulatory working group. She played a leading role in helping the industry grasp the group risk implications of pensions tax simplification and in lobbying for the changes needed to minimise its unintended consequences. Sue continues to work with various industry bodies and working groups looking at the ongoing age discrimination issues. She is currently analysing the impact of the latest changes on gender discrimination and welfare reform.
