Print this pageBGL Group News
Our Directors
Non-Executive Chairman and Founder
Douw Steyn
Non-Executive Director
Stephen Klinkert
| BGL Group Board | Group Executive |
| Peter Winslow | Matthew Gledhill |
| Ian Leech | Bob Perry |
| Matthew Donaldson | Kal Samra |
| Cheryl Clifford | David Thompson |
| Peter Thompson |
BGL Group Board Members
Peter Winslow, Group Chief Executive
Board Member
Peter qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1978 and went straight into the book publishing industry. He built up and sold a private niche publishing concern to Harper Collins, which he joined in 1989 as Finance Director. He went on to become Chief Executive at Harper Collins from 1990 to 1994. At 40 he decided on a career change, pursuing an interest in high volume direct to the consumer business.
Peter joined the BGL Group in 1995 as Deputy Managing Director and became Group Chief Executive in 1997, orchestrating a strategic change in direction as the company moved from operating as an insurance underwriter to broker. Presiding over a series of high profile acquisitions and leading the Group into new territories such as the affinity and price comparison markets, Peter and his management team have established the Group as a major player in the UK insurance arena.
Ian Leech, Deputy Chief Executive and Group Finance Director
Board Member
Prior to joining the BGL Group, Ian held the position of Finance Director, Forward Asset Finance Limited, a leasing subsidiary of Midland Bank, now HSBC. In 1997, Ian joined BGL as Finance Director and played a key role in the transformation of the business from underwriter to intermediary.
In 1999 Ian was promoted to Deputy Chief Executive, and since then has led a number of strategic acquisitions and led the commercial structuring of major business partnerships.
Matthew Donaldson, Group Director
Board Member
Matthew joined BGL Group as regional sales & operations manager, covering the North of England and Scotland, following the acquisition of the retail broker chain, Arnott Century in 1999. After a period as National Sales & Operations Director, Matthew was appointed as Managing Director of Budget Retail Limited in 2002.
Latterly, Matthew's role was extended to include that of Group E-commerce Director, developing and executing the Group’s initial e-commerce strategy.
In 2005 Matthew was appointed to the role of Group Director. Since his appointment Matthew has completed an MBA and now enjoys responsibility for four trading businesses (frontline/, Bennetts, Junction and comparethemarket.com), alongside the two support departments, E-commerce and Product Development.
Cheryl Clifford, Non-Executive Director
Board Member
Cheryl holds a degree in Sociology and Social Administration and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development. Prior to joining the BGL Group, Cheryl held the position of HR Director with several organisations.
Cheryl joined the BGL Group in 2002 as Group HR Director, and in January 2005 became Non-Executive Director within the Group. In addition, she holds several other Non Executive Directorships with financial services organisations.
Executive Team Members
Matthew Gledhill, Managing Director, Frontline
Executive Team Member
Matthew who holds a degree in Economics & Politics and an MBA in Marketing joined the Group in 2001 undertaking the successful relaunch of the Budget brand. In 2002 he was appointed to the role of Managing Director for Bennetts. Here he relaunched the Bennetts brand, which resulted in a significant growth in its market share and profit contribution.
Matthew took on his current role of Managing Director for Frontline in 2005.
Bob Perry, Managing Director, ACM ULR
Executive Team Member
Bob has for over 25 years worked in the insurance industry as a claims professional, handling serious and complex cases, managing large claims operations, and responsible for the creation and running of claims businesses.
After joining the BGL Group in 1995, Bob began by managing Budget’s claims division, and then played a leading role in the creation of ACM ULR in 2003.
During 2006/07 Bob has developed ACM's external-facing business and provision of services. New business development and account management are now a major part of his role.
Kal Samra, Managing Director, Bennetts and
comparethemarket.com
Executive Team Member
Derby-born, Kal graduated from Sheffield Hallam University in International Business and Spanish and then spent a year in Madrid working for Ernst and Young Accountants.
Kal joined BGL as Senior Marketing Manager in 2001, where she assumed responsibility for all Bennetts marketing activity. She was promoted to Associate Director in December 2004, and appointed Managing Director in July 2005 having successfully driven the Bennetts brand to its current number one status in the bike insurance market.
In July 2007 Kal was appointed Managing Director of the comparethemarket.com business, to coincide with a £30 million investment in the brand.
David Thompson, Managing Director, Fusion
Executive Team Member
David has over 10 years experience of managing complex sales and service environments at a senior level and a track record of managing significant operational change. David held the position of Director of Operations at Cygnific UK (KLM) and Toad plc, before moving to esure as Head of Operations.
David joined the Group in 2005 as Operations Director for Fusion where he has overall responsibility for service, performance & costs at the four Fusion sites. David’s appointment to Managing Director means he now has full responsibility for the whole of the Fusion business.
Peter Thompson, Managing Director, Junction
Executive Team Member
Peter Thompson is a motivated professional with a proven track record of delivering results in a number of challenging roles. He joined BGL as Managing Director of Junction, the business-to-business arm of the Group in January 2008. Junction is a highly successful affinity outsourcing business and has ambitious targets including reaching £1billion GWP and three million policies by 2010.
Peter has spent 22 years working in the UK insurance industry, in both commercial and personal lines; two years in broking and 16 years at Royal and SunAlliance where he was responsible for non-motor personal lines corporate partnerships. A business-to-business specialist, Peter joined HBOS in 2003 as Head of Commercial Insurance and in 2005 became Managing Director of Partnerships for the Group, responsible for the profitable growth of multi product joint ventures and all intermediated insurance distribution.