Benny Higgins

Group Chairman

Kevin Spencer

Group CEO

Kevin is the founder and majority shareholder of Markerstudy Group. He spent his early days with a small provincial broker, then became an Agency Consultant and later, the Managing Director of Lloyd's broker Edgar Hamilton and Wellard. Kevin considers the creation of Markerstudy Group to be his proudest achievement.

Gary Humphreys

Group Chief Underwriting Officer

Gary is the second largest shareholder and joint founder of Markerstudy Group. After a career in underwriting in the Lloyd’s market, he joined forces with Kevin Spencer in 1997 to establish the MGA that became Markerstudy. Gary continues to head up the insurance operations, as well as contributing to the development of other companies within the Group.

Keith Barber

Group Chief Financial Officer

With a first class degree in Economics and Business Economics at Southampton University, Keith qualified as a Chartered Accountant and took positions in Ernst and Young and KPMG.  Following various Financial Controller roles within Equity Group, he joined the board of Markerstudy Group in 2005, and is a shareholder. Keith is now responsible for overseeing the divisions of Finance, Legal, Risk and Compliance.

Chris Payne

Group General Counsel and Company Secretary

Chris worked in the motor, pharmaceutical, gaming and betting sectors before being headhunted by Markerstudy to establish the Group Legal department.

Lizzie Smith-Foreman

Director of Group Marketing & Communications

Following a Masters degree in Marketing, Lizzie’s career path lead her to insurance, firstly with Denplan (part of AXA) and then Groupama Insurances. Joining Markerstudy in 2010 and building her department, she is responsible for keeping pace with the rapidly expanding needs of the business.

Martin Wills

Managing Director

As co-founder of Vision, and its Managing Director, Martin’s role is pivotal to the company’s ongoing success. He is responsible for the continued development of Vision as a unique credit and intervention hire solution via commercial relationships, alongside the identification of new opportunities in a changing marketplace. Whilst his focus is to provide a first class service to customers and trade partners, Martin never loses sight of creating the right working environment. This ethos has given Vision a strong employee retention rate, created internal career development opportunities and helped the company achieve its ‘Investors in People’ accreditation.

Michael Brittain

Finance Director Group Services

With over 25 years' experience in senior finance and accounting positions, Michael joined Markerstudy in March 2006 and has been involved in all stages of the group’s growth, including playing an active role in all acquisitions.

Steve Cross

Group Head of Claims

During his 31 year career in the insurance industry, Steve has held senior claims positions within a range of disciplines, including Operational Management, Audit, Technical Claims Management and Executive Management, across both Lloyd’s Syndicates and Composite Insurers. Since 2007, Steve has held the position of Group Head of Claims for Markerstudy where he has overall responsibility for all of the group’s claims activities, with a particular interest in the strategic development of the claims function and simplification of the claims solutions delivered to the market. Steve is an advocate of partnering cutting edge technology with skilled personnel to achieve market leading claims solutions, that not only improve the customer experience but also reduce indemnity spend.

Amanda Fox

Head of Broker Management and Product Governance

Amanda has a wealth of experience in the insurance industry. Starting at Norwich Union as an underwriter, she progressed her career through a variety of roles in insurance businesses from start-ups through to multinationals. Amanda joined Markerstudy as Head of National Accounts in January 2020, after successfully building, implementing and recruiting a Partnership and Product Governance Team and Framework for Co-op Insurance Services. She was then promoted to her current role in May 2020 and is working to strengthen these areas for Markerstudy.

Tanya Gerrard-White

Director of HR & Talent Development

Formerly a recruiter in London and the US, Tanya set up her own business and Markerstudy became a client. She now heads up the ‘people’ parts of the group.

Gary Hueting

MISL Chief Underwriting Officer

As Markerstudy Insurance Services Limited (MISL) COO, Gary leads the Claims, Counter Fraud and Broker Services teams. Prior to Markerstudy, Gary has 15 years’ experience in preparing for and successfully selling insurance businesses. As Co-op’s COO, he delivered significant commercial benefits, reduced headcount by 25%, transformed customer service, embedding a robust control environment and prepared for the sale to Markerstudy. Before the Co-op, Gary was CIO and then COO for Domestic and General (leading both Operations and IT). During his tenure, the business was taken from FTSE 250 to Private Equity ownership and was successfully sold delivering over four times the value.

Elaine Fell

Insurance Accounts Controller

Tim Marsden

Head of MI & Analytics

Graham Partlow

Head of Group Projects

With over 30 years' experience in service roles, specifically contact centres, Graham joined Markerstudy in December 2014 as Group Contact Centre Manager, and transferred to Head of Group Projects in 2016.

James MacBeth

Managing Director

James has 29 years’ experience of working at Auto Windscreens. He started as a trainee technician in Edinburgh and worked his way through the ranks becoming Managing Director in 2019. James has been instrumental in the development of their ADAS calibration service and the growth of the UK network of Auto Windscreens’ service centres. Hailing from a Scottish fishing village, he now resides in Falkirk and works predominantly at the head office in Chesterfield or out in the network. His weekends are spent with his wife Eleanor, his three children and his dog, Marley. His grandfather was a steam engine driver and dad a boatbuilder, so he’s long held an interest in anything mechanical. In his spare time he enjoys renovating and selling boats and his latest project is a 28-foot Bayliner.

Barnes Atkinson

Group Head of Transformational Change

Richard Morley

Broking Director, Markerstudy Broking

Rich joined the business in December 2013 when Markerstudy purchased Lancaster Insurance. The broker was a distressed purchase and Rich was promoted to Operations Director with full ownership of the P&L. The business quickly became profitable and was re-established as the leading brand in the classic car insurance space. Rich subsequently took on responsibility for Reis Motorsport Insurance, driving improved performance and growth. Rich now holds responsibility for performance across the wider broking division, incorporating The Taxi Insurer, Motorhome Protect, The Insurance Factory and Brightside, as well as the Geoffrey Insurance and Zenith Insurance operational teams, which are outsourced to BGL.

Ross Barrington

Managing Director

Joining Markerstudy in late 2013 with the acquisition of BDML Connect from Capita, Ross has a financial services background in Retail Banking, having moved into insurance broking in 2011 when he joined Lancaster Insurance. Ross took the helm as Managing Director of Markerstudy Broking in 2017, and in 2021 added both Brightside Insurance and Affinity Insurance Solutions Limited (AISL) to his portfolio of brands. With over 1,100 employees, his focus is on building experienced and resilient teams, investing in IT infrastructure and improving the customer journey to drive growth throughout the division.

Simon Marsh

CEO of Vision Track

Simon founded VisionTrack in 2014 and has been at the forefront of video telematics and associated technologies for a number of years. He was previously Managing Director of SmartWitness and prior to this Founder and Managing Director of a smart logistics company. This business, a specialist in supplying high-value technology and temperature-monitored solutions for the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors, was acquired by a Fortune 500 company. Simon first deployed in-vehicle camera technology in his own fleet in 2006. He has a keen interest in motorsport, fitness and emerging technologies.

Adam Miller

Group Head of IT

Adam joined Markerstudy in January 2015 as Deputy Head of IT with 20 years’ IT experience in the insurance industry. During this period, Adam has been instrumental in leading the operational IT teams who deliver the core systems and services that underpin all of the group businesses. Adam received promotion to the position of Group Head of IT in July 2018.

Ann Pelaez

Head of Operational Performance

With over 30 years’ experience in Financial Services, 25 of them in insurance, Ann has held a number of senior positions across a range of functions in large and small organisations. With a background in Programme and Change Management, Ann is passionate about challenging the status quo and developing an environment in which individuals are empowered to drive forward positive and sustainable improvement; removing non-value adding effort and optimising performance. Using a combination of technology, process optimisation and skilled colleagues, Ann’s aim is to deliver a seamless and good quality experience for our customers and colleagues alike whilst minimising operational cost.

Steve Smith

MGA – Head of Finance

Will James

Head of Technical Underwriting

Simon Hughes

Group Head of Data & Analytics

Mark Pratt

Head of Motor Claims Service and Supply

Mark joined Markerstudy in 2011, and a promotion to Managing Director of the TCW brand followed shortly afterwards. Having worked in the motor industry for over 40 years, his in-depth knowledge of vehicle repairs and the customer journey has been invaluable. In 2014, Mark took the position of Head of Group Service and Supply, with responsibility for overseeing the managed repair networks, salvage disposal, vehicle hire, recovery and replacement vehicles for group motor claims. He also manages the specialist supply chain partners, dealing with home building and content claims. Within the GSS team, both the engineering and total loss team functions operate over five locations.

Colin Tester

Head of Risk

Alex Bourne

Head of Compliance

Martyn Green

Chief Actuary