John McGuigan

Mr McGuigan has over 25 years’ experience operating at senior executive levels across a number of sectors. A customer director, he draws on a profound understanding of the changing needs of customer behaviours to improve business performance and to steer organisations towards sustainable outcomes.

Operating at board level, Mr McGuigan is highly skilled in helping shape business priorities to increase value.

He has held senior executive roles within financial services, including managing director of customer operations at Standard Life where he led the customer work as part of the purchase of Standard Life by Pheonix Group. At the point of completion of the takeover Mr McGuigan was subsequently invited to join Pheonix as group customer director, leading a large-scale transformation programme to improve the overall customer journey.

Prior to financial services, he was managing director at Telefonica and chief executive for NHS 24 and currently holds the position of chair of Scottish Financial Enterprise as well as recently being appointed chair of Scottish Rugby Ltd.

Commenting on the appointment, David Huntley, Scottish Friendly’s chair, said: “I am delighted that John will be joining the Board at Scottish Friendly.

“Appointing someone who shares the same values, purpose, and future vision that we hold so strongly enables us to further strengthen our current board and complement our existing team of non-executive directors.”

Stephen McGee, Scottish Friendly’s chief executive, added: “John has a proven track record of leading large teams and delivering large-scale projects that deliver significant organisational improvements, not only in financial services but across multiple sectors.

“To have someone of John’s calibre join Scottish Friendly at such an exciting time will only help to take us forward on our journey to becoming the UK’s leading mutual insurer.”

Mr McGuigan said: “Scottish Friendly is an organisation that I have admired for some time, and so I am delighted to have the opportunity to join them.

“I now look forward to using my knowledge and experience to help the business continue to thrive and achieve their ambition to help individuals and families achieve better financial outcomes.”