Broker Brightside appoints new COO from Swinton Group

UK broker Brightside Group has appointed Richard Beaven as group chief operating officer (COO), reporting to group CEO Brendan McCafferty.

Beaven was distribution director of Swinton Group for three years, until 2018. He has previously held senior roles at Lloyds Banking Group, Reuters, Bank of New York and Barclays.

Brightside said the move is a key part of McCafferty’s plans to further enhance service to customers and to build stronger and deeper relationships with distribution partners in an increasingly digitised sector.

“I have made clear that to thrive and prosper in the future, brokers need to build scale, to be active in niche business and to fully embrace digital,” said McCafferty. “Brightside is now some distance along the path to becoming fully digitised, but with Richard on board as Group COO we can give additional focus to executing this part of our strategy in full and across the group.”

McCafferty added: “Richard is a highly experienced executive with a successful track record in a number of blue chip financials, most recently at Swinton, where he was distribution director. I’m delighted to welcome him to Brightside.”

Beaven said: “I’m excited to be joining Brendan and the Brightside team. The group has a clearly defined strategy, so my role is all about execution, and overseeing the further digital transformation of the business – culturally as well as operationally - into a digital broker fit for the next decade.”

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