Mortgage Advice Bureau (MAB) deputy CEO Ben Thompson is stepping down from his position and leaving the board of the mortgage and protection intermediary at the end of this year.
In a statement, MAB said Thompson was making the move for personal reasons and would be transitioning to a newly created strategic role.
MAB is also recruiting Yaiza Luengo to the new position of chief operating officer and member of the executive committee, with effect from 8 September.
Luengo is expected to join the board when Thompson steps down at the end of this year, subject to all necessary approvals.
MAB said Thompson’s new role would be focusing on building new value by optimising the firm’s mortgage opportunity and broadening and strengthening its customer proposition.
“Over the past seven years, Ben has been a key member of the board, playing an instrumental role in the group’s development and success,” the firm said.
“His leadership and deep market expertise have earned the trust of colleagues, partners and investors alike, and the board is delighted that he will be steering this exciting part of MAB’s future development.”
Luengo brings more than 20 years of international experience in financial services including senior executive roles at RBS, Barclays, HSBC, Refinitiv which is now part of LSEG, and WiZink Bank.
MAB said she had a “strong track record in driving large-scale transformation, revenue leadership and operational restructuring in regulated environments”.
She has led technology-enabled change across cloud and data architecture, artificial intelligence (AI), digital customer experience and enterprise platforms, it added.
Non-executive director appointments
MAB has also made a series of changes to its non-executive director (NED) positions with two new joiners and two role changes.
Mandy Donald and Dr Orlando Machado have joined as independent NEDs.
Donald, who is also a NED and chairwoman of the audit and risk committee at Punter Southall Group Limited, will lead the MAB audit committee and serve on the remuneration, nomination and group risk committees.
Her previous executive career includes 18 years at EY.
Dr Machado will serve on the remuneration, audit, nomination and group risk committees.
He is formerly chief data officer at the LEGO Group, head of UK data science and analytics at Tesco’s dunnhumby, and chief data scientist at both MoneySupermarket and Aviva.
Rachel Haworth will become senior independent non-executive director in addition to her current role as chairwoman of the remuneration committee.
However, Nathan Imlach, previously senior independent non-executive director and chairman of the audit committee, will step down as a member of the audit, remuneration, nomination and group risk committees but remain on the board as a non-independent non-executive director.
Key team member
MAB non-executive chairman Mike Jones said the changes were a natural evolution.
“Since joining the group in 2018, Ben has been a key member of the team that has delivered significant revenue and market share growth at MAB, and although he has chosen to step down from the board due to personal circumstances, I am delighted that his major contribution to the business will continue in his new strategic role,” Jones said.
He continued: “The appointment of Yaiza as chief operating officer, a newly created role, is central to delivering on the ambitions outlined by our executive team at our capital markets day earlier this year.
“Yaiza’s considerable operational experience, and technology background will provide important leadership as we deliver on our medium-term growth targets. We look forward to welcoming her to the board at the end of the year.”