Towergate Financial appoints ex-John Charcol man as chief executive

Towergate Financial Services has appointed Ian Darby, a former chairman of John Charcol, as its new chief executive.

Darby, who will assume the role on Friday, spent 16 years with John Charcol from 1984 to 2000 before joining Bradford & Bingley, where he held a variety of executive roles including group distribution director where he oversaw over 800 IFAs.

He returned to John Charcol as chairman between 2005 and 2007.

Patrick Snowball (pictured), chairman of Towergate Financial which is the advisory arm of acquisitive insurance broking giant Towergate Partnership, said that Darby’s IFA, regulatory and marketing experience would help the business grow and ‘take advantage of current market opportunities’.

Darby said he was looking forward to helping develop a brand that was ‘at the very forefront of this industry’.

‘Towergate Financial is a highly entrepreneurial business that has assembled a high quality management team committed to developing the pre-eminent personal financial services advisory business,’ he said.

Darby is also a non-executive director of Sesame and chairman of Home Funding.