Scottish Friendly appoints new commercial director

Scottish Friendly, Scotland’s biggest financial mutual, has appointed Neil Lovatt to its Board as commercial director.

Mr Lovatt was previously Scottish Friendly’s sales and marketing director, a position he held for a decade, after fourteen years’ marketing experience at Scottish Life and Royal London.

As Commercial Director, Mr Lovatt will play a key role in the development of the Group’s strategy and is responsible for all aspects of marketing, product development and distribution channels.

He will report into Jim Galbraith, who took over as Scottish Friendly’s chief executive on 1 January.

Jim Galbraith said: “Neil Lovatt has been a key player in Scottish Friendly’s outstanding success over the past ten years which has seen the Group evolve from a direct marketing operation to a multi-channel distributor and manufacturer of innovative financial products for leading UK brands.

He continued: “In this new Board appointment, Neil will play an important role in continuing the development of Scottish Friendly’s strategy at what is a challenging but exciting time for financial services.”

Neil Lovatt said: “Scottish Friendly has gone from strength to strength over the past decade, as we continue to challenge an all too lethargic financial services industry. We aim to be different by enabling ourselves and our partners to rapidly develop and evolve financial products that meet the ever-changing needs of our customers. With the tides of political, generational and technological transformation all rising we can expect the next decade to be even more uncertain. It’s a great time to be different and to be driving real change.”