Alliance Trust Savings has appointed Tim Tookey as chair of the Alliance Trust Savings Board.

The former Friends Life chief financial officer’s appointment follows the decision for Alliance Trust Savings to become a standalone business with its own management and independent Board.

Tim has spent more than 30 years in various financial and professional service organisations. He is currently Non-Executive Director of Nationwide Building Society, after joining them in 2015, previously having held roles in Lloyds Banking Group, Prudential and KPMG.

The appointment comes as part of a shake-up of the business, after the separation of Alliance Trust Savings from its investment division and parent company.

Tim will work with existing Non-Executive Directors, Jonathan Anderson and Gregor Stewart, who joined the Board in January.

Anderson, who is also the Chair of the Audit and Risk Committees, is a chartered accountant and Group Financial Controller at LV=. Stewart has been involved with Alliance Trust Savings since his appointment to the Alliance Trust Savings Board in 2014. He too is a chartered accountant and has involvement in a number of other financial institutions alongside Alliance Trust.

Patrick Mill, Chief Executive of Alliance Trust Savings, said: “This is an exciting stage in the development of Alliance Trust Savings. The fact that we have been able to attract such high calibre Board members illustrates the strength of our strategy and business proposition.

“Tim and Jonathan’s extensive experience, alongside Gregor’s expertise and knowledge of Alliance Trust Savings, complements the talent within our executive team and will be invaluable in driving the business forward to deliver a meaningful profit in 2016 and beyond.”

Various changes have been made at Alliance Trust Savings this year, after its separation from the Alliance Trust business. January say the appointment of former Cofunds head of distribution Ed Carey as sales director, and Peter Docherty as its risk and compliance officer.

At the time Patrick Mills said that the business had a number of plans to grow assets under administration to around £40 billion by 2020.

However, in the latest results for 2015, Alliance Trust Savings made a ‘pre-tax loss’ of £5.2m due to technology spends and lower than expected revenues.