Our People
Seniors Money International Limited is a New Zealand company. The Board and Head Office are located in Auckland. Members of the Group Executive are located either in the Auckland Head Office or in the Northern Hemisphere Office in Dublin, Ireland.
Directors of Seniors Money International Limited:
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Right Honourable Jenny Shipley DCNZM, FNZIM (New Zealand) - Chairman A former Prime Minister of New Zealand, she is now a director and advisory board member for a number of companies and organisations in New Zealand and elsewhere. She retains her interest in international politics through her involvement in the Club of Madrid, a group of former Presidents and Prime Ministers of democracies. |
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Ian Hendry FCII APMI (New Zealand) - Deputy Chair Ian has an extensive background in marketing and sales in the financial services industry, working for Eagle Star Insurance Company Limited in the UK and Hong Kong before founding Sovereign Limited with Chris Coon in 1989 where he became Managing Director. Ian retired from Sovereign Limited in early 2002 and subsequently became one of the founders of Sentinel Limited (now known as SMI). He was a board member of the Investment, Savings and Insurance Association of New Zealand and is currently a director of the listed investment companies Kingfish Limited and Barramundi Limited. |
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Stephen Gunning B Comm FCA (Ireland) - Group Chief Executive Officer Stephen has served as Chief Financial Officer, Managing Director and Treasurer of publicly listed and privately held corporations in Europe and the United States. These include serving as Chief Operating Officer of the Americas division of Hagemeyer NV (a $5bn sales, marketing and distribution multinational listed on the Amsterdam exchange) and Vice President of Finance & Treasurer of The Huber Corporation, one of the largest privately owned companies in the United States. Stephen has been involved in a range of start up businesses in the financial and technology based services sectors and has sat on the boards of various companies including regulated finance and reinsurance companies. Stephen joined the group in August 2005 to found and head up our European operations. |
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Chris Coon BSc FIA FIS (New Zealand) - Director and Group Actuary Chris qualified as an Actuary with Bacon and Woodrow in London and held a number of positions with life companies in the UK before immigrating to New Zealand in 1986. In 1989 Chris and Ian Hendry founded Sovereign Limited which was sold to Commonwealth Bank of Australia in December 1998. In 2002 Chris retired to plan what became Sentinel Limited (now known as SMI) and was the initial intellectual inspiration for the business. |
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Brett Wilson BCom CA (New Zealand) – Chief Financial Officer and Secretary Brett has 20 years experience in financial services. He spent 8 years with Sovereign as CFO and was previously CFO for Metropolitan Life which was acquired by Sovereign. Prior to joining Seniors Money International he was General Manager Finance for ASB the New Zealand subsidiary of Commonwealth Bank of Australia. |
Group Executive Team
Members of the Group Executive are based in Auckland and Dublin.
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Stephen Gunning B Comm FCA (Ireland) - Group Chief Executive Officer (See profile above under Board Directors) |
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Brett Wilson BCom CA (New Zealand) – Chief Financial Officer and Secretary (See profile above under Board Directors) |
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John Moriarty BA (Hons) MCT FCA (Ireland) – Group Executive, Operations
John is a Fellow of the Irish Institute of Chartered Accountants. Following an early career in Logica, Zenith and ESB he spent ten years with FTI Finance Ltd (Irish IFSC-based Treasury Consultancy and outsourcing business) where his roles included Director of Treasury Consulting and was a member of the MBO team that bought FTI from ESB in 1997. He subsequently became Group Treasurer of Golden Vale plc then Managing Director of Hagemeyer Ireland plc. He joined our European operations in March 2006 from Kinsale Capital Management Limited where he was Chief Financial Officer. He is a director of a range of finance related companies. |
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Vaughan Underwood, MBA (New Zealand) -
CEO - Australia and New Zealand Vaughan's early career was spent in the FMCG sector both in New Zealand and overseas, before joining Sterling Grace Portfolio Management as Chief Executive in 1997. During this period Vaughan managed the acquisition process of Sterling Grace by AXA New Zealand, subsequently becoming CEO of AXA NZ. Vaughan joined Sentinel as Chief Executive Officer in 2007 and in 2008 was appointed CEO Asia Pacific for SMI. Vaughan is currently Chairman of SHERPA, the Safe Home Equity Release Plans Association. |
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Derek Handley B Comm MBS (Ireland) – CEO - Ireland Following an early career as a business analyst Derek became a founding member of the management team that grew Esat Digifone (Irish cellular network operator) from start up in 1995 to acquisition by BT for €2.6bn in 2000. Derek spent seven years as Marketing Director of Digifone and two years as Product Director of O2 Europe before becoming Managing Director then Non-Executive Chairman of a leading Irish Advertising agency. Derek subsequently held MD positions in two early stage services retailing businesses before joining our European operations at the end of 2005. |
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Nick DiRenzo B.Com FCA - Country Manager - Canada Nick qualified as a Chartered Accountant with KPMG and has served as Senior Vice President Finance for AXA/Colonia Life Insurance Company and President of its Real Estate affiliate. He joined a major Canadian real estate company and then joined the Independent Order of Foresters where he held overall sales and marketing responsibilities for their North American life assurance operations as well as responsibility for their broker/ dealer companies in Canada and the United States. |
