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03.05.2024

Wren Sterling Hires New Chief Financial Officer to Drive Next Phase of its Strategic Growth

Former Barclays MD of Savings and CEO of Barclays Insurance joins to support the firm’s continued success

Wren Sterling, one of the UK’s leading providers of specialist independent financial planning advice to private and corporate clients with over £7bn under management, is delighted to announce the appointment of David Kelly as Chief Financial Officer (CFO), subject to FCA approval.

David joins Wren Sterling following fourteen years at Barclays Bank, where he most recently was Managing Director of Savings and CEO of Barclays Insurance. Prior to that David was the CFO and then interim CEO of Barclaycard UK. He has an impressive breadth of financial expertise from various CFO appointments covering Current Accounts, Insurance, Consumer Lending, Investments, and Premier business divisions. Preceding this, David held senior finance roles at the Direct Line Group, 3UK and General Electric.

This appointment is part of a planned succession, with David succeeding Andy Moss, who is stepping down after eight years in the role and has been a key part of the management team that has driven the business’ success, including its secondary management buyout with Lightyear Capital in December 2021.

Hiring an individual of David’s calibre and experience underlines the business’ ambition and commitment to building one of the UK’s pre-eminent providers of financial advice and discretionary investment management services and will enable the business to accelerate further the strong track record of success achieved since Lightyear Capital’s investment in December 2021.

This includes transforming its brand and proposition, investing in creating a new target operating model, completing and integrating 12 acquisitions and successfully launching Magnus, its Discretionary Fund Management service.

Andy Moss will remain with Wren Sterling for a phased handover period in the coming months as David Kelly awaits approval from the FCA.

James Twining, Chief Executive, said: “I’m very excited to be welcoming David to Wren Sterling. He brings an outstanding track record of success in a variety of finance and leadership roles within financial services. I know that he will add a huge amount of value to the business and I’m looking forward to working closely with him over the coming years as we continue to deliver for our clients, our shareholders and our colleagues.

“On behalf of the Board I want to thank Andy Moss for playing such an important part of the company’s success over recent years, helping deliver significant growth and change and a successful M&A programme. He has placed us in a strong position for further organic and non-organic growth as part of this planned succession process and we wish him every success for the future.”

David Kelly, Chief Financial Officer (subject to FCA approval) added: “I am thrilled to be joining the team at this pivotal moment. The growth and transformation since Lightyear’s investment has been inspiring. I look forward to working with colleagues and shareholders on behalf of our clients to further enhance our financial management, strategic decision making and management insights, so that we can better serve clients and accelerate our growth”.