Guardian Advice Makes Three Senior Appointments to Enhance Service to Advisers

June 20, 2012 - PRLog -- Guardian Advice has made three new senior appointments to help drive Guardian’s strategy to grow its adviser network to more than 200 advisers by 2015, and enhance its service offering to advisers.

Those appointments include:

•   John Gray, State Manager NSW/ACT
•   Patrick Casey, National Distribution Manager, and
•   Richard Johnson, Dealer Operations Manager

John, Patrick and Richard form an important part of Guardian’s leadership team. Together, they are responsible for helping drive Guardian’s offer with existing advisers and those in the broader advice market, and working closely with independent risk-focused practices to help them to grow their business.

John Gray joined Guardian in January. John has responsibility for working closely with Guardian’s NSW/ACT practices, focusing on their growth, and supporting the acquisition and succession plans of growth-oriented practices.

Head of Guardian Advice Simon Harris said: “John is passionate about building robust and measurable business plans for advisers who want to advance their business.

Through this, he has enlisted a number of new practices to Guardian, and helped several of those practices recruit new advisers and support staff.”

Patrick Casey’s charter is to implement a number of strategic initiatives within Guardian and work closely with Guardian’s National Advisory Council to ensure the group’s adviser offering is what advisers value from their relationship with Guardian.

“Pat is a valuable addition to our team, as he brings strong experience working closely with self-employed financial planning businesses in business development, succession planning, recruitment, building centres of influence and raising productivity,” Mr Harris said.

Richard Johnson leads the research, dealer operations and adviser desktop solutions teams for Suncorp Life licensees, including Guardian Advice.

“Richard is the backbone of our adviser support function,” Mr Harris said. “He is passionate about customer service and delivering market-leading adviser services to our advisers. Our operational effectiveness is seeing continual improvement under his leadership.”

About John Gray
John joins Guardian from the CBA where he was Head of National Accounts for the bank’s Core Equity Services business. Prior to CBA, John held vice president roles with JP Morgan and senior roles in product and sales with ANZ. He has more than 12 years experience in wealth management and banking. He holds an MBA from Deakin University and a Bachelor of Economics from Flinders University.

About Patrick Casey
Pat has been in the financial services industry for 10 years, and previously held a number of senior roles in Distribution, Practice Development and Operations at Colonial First State. Patrick holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Wollongong, and Graduate Diploma in Financial Planning from the Securities Institute of Australia.

About Richard Johnson
Richard has been with Suncorp Life for nine years. He previously managed Asteron Life’s Call Centre and Retention Team, where he built a reputation for delivering exceptional results while maintaining a highly engaged team. He has 24 years experience within the service industry - in hospitality and in the dramatic arts as an actor.

He holds an Masters in Business from the University of Newcastle and a Diploma in Business Management from Deakin University.

-ENDS-

MEDIA CONTACT: To interview Simon Harris, please contact Helen Han on: 0457 535 639.