EY partner appointed Legal & General group CFO

JEFF DAVIES, an EY senior partner has been appointed group CFO at Legal & General Group replacing Mark Gregory.

Current finance chief Gregory will leave the FTSE 100 business next August following a handover period with Davies, who will become CFO once the insurer reports its 2016 interim results next spring.

Chartered accountant Davies currently leads EY’s European risk and actuarial insurance services practice. He has worked for EY since 2004 and also at the world’s biggest reinsurer Swiss Re.

Sir John Kingman, chairman of Legal & General, said Davies “has deep insurance experience and expertise, and will be an excellent addition to the group board as we take Legal & General forward on the next stage of our strategy of growth”.

L&G announced in February that Gregory would retire in January 2017, after having worked at the insurer for 17 years, the last seven of them at executive board level.

In June the insurance group hired Sir John, former Treasury civil servant, as its new chairman, while reassuring investors that its balance sheet was “resilient” after the turbulence caused by the EU referendum. He replaced John Stewart who stepped down from the board on 1 June.

The insurer chose KPMG as its new auditor earlier in the month, replacing PwC.