Biographies - Who's who around the table

GRAHAM COATES, HEAD OF OPERATIONS, STUART ALEXANDER

Graham Coates commenced his career as a trainee at the Royal, progressing to account manager responsible for a panel of brokers. He then moved to Provincial Insurance as account manager progressing to the City office, eventually being promoted to branch manager, Reading. Coates moved back to the City as manager when UAP bought Provincial and was made regional director when Axa and UAP merged. He rose to the position of regional director for the entire Axa London operations when Axa bought Guardian.After a year of teaching, Coates returned to insurance, joining Stuart Alexander as group operations director with responsibility for markets, human resources, compliance and business planning.

ANDREW HOLMAN CHIEF EXECUTIVE, HOLMANS INSURANCE BROKERS

Andrew Holman is currently managing director of Holmans Insurance Brokers, one of the oldest family-owned firms in the City of London. Prior to working for the firm he was an officer in the Blues & Royals, leaving with the rank of captain and a nine-month attachment to the Royal Marines. Since leaving the Army Andrew has placed more emphasis on academic success and has completed two Masters degrees, an MBA from Warwick and an MSc from City, the latter with distinction. In addition, in 1999, he was appointed an Associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute by examination.

OLIVER LAUGHTON-SCOTT PARTNER AND FOUNDER, IMAS

Oliver Laughton-Scott set up IMAS in 1992 to offer a range of merger and acquisition advisory services for financial services and insurance. Since then Laughton-Scott has advised on thousands of deals and has become an expert on achieving a successful outcome for insurance brokers looking to buy or sell. Prior to this he was an executive, Cavenove & Co., where he worked on rights issue and public company takeovers, from 1987. From 1984 he was assistant manager at Kleinwort Benson, where he was involved in a number of transactions, including two flotations. He qualified as chartered accountant with Arthur Andersen in 1981.

PAUL MATTHEWS, MANAGING DIRECTOR, FOOTMAN JAMES

Paul Matthews is the managing director of Footman James & Co., based in the West Midlands. With more than 25 years of experience in the insurance industry, he spent a significant part of his career at AA Insurance, where he was national sales manager, responsible for its 250 branches, before becoming business development director at Bennetts Insurance with responsibility for insurer relations and sales development. Matthews has also held the roles of business development director for the Highway-backed software house New Millennium Technologies and corporate development manager for Misys.

PAUL SMITH, DIRECTOR, COBRA

Paul started his insurance career with GRE in 1981 as a commercial underwriter. In 1990 he moved to the life side as an independent financial adviser broker-consultant with Scottish Provident. In 1993 Smith joined forces with Phil Truman as sales consultant, developing and growing his business until 1999 when he then moved to Hanover Park Commercial. In July 2003 he was given the opportunity to build and roll out the member services for COBRA, following which, he was appointed director of COBRA and joined the board of directors in January 2005.

PETER STADDON, HEAD OF TECHNICAL SERVICES, BRITISH INSURANCE BROKERS' ASSOCIATION

Peter Staddon began his insurance career in 1971 and joined the British Insurance Brokers' Association in 1996 to establish the technical services department. He was responsible for raising key technical issues with the media, gaining significant coverage, and has played a significant role in such issues as employers' liability and terms-of-business agreements, and he has developed ongoing relationships with various government departments. Staddon is an associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute, a chartered insurance broker and an associate of the Chartered Management Institute.

KEVIN YOUNG, CHAIRMAN AND FOUNDER, ARGYLL

Kevin Young left school and began his insurance career at The National Transit Insurance Company (part of Sun Alliance) in 1974. In 1979 he decided to cross the divide and entered insurance management within the industry, taking various roles until he re-entered the mainstream as an associate director with Citicorp Insurance Brokers in 1987. In 1991, he founded Argyll Insurance Brokers and has spent the last 14 years growing this business from a gross written premium of £1.5m to its existing level of £23m. With targets identified, there is more growth to come.