Welcome to the Yorkshire Financial Awards 2025

With over 30 years’ experience in the mutual sector, Andrew Haigh has an extensive track record in transforming and developing businesses. He has held financial services leadership roles as both an executive and a non-executive dDirector, reinforcing the Board’s depth of consumer understanding. His previous experience is drawn from a variety of sectors including the financial services, technology, automotive and airline industries.

Andrew became the Society’s chief executive in May 2015. A proven chief executive, Andrew has particular strength in building effective leadership teams and organisations with healthy, customer focussed cultures, and proudly drives our Society’s ongoing commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion.

Other roles: Andrew is a Board member of the North East England Chamber of Commerce and a Board member of the Community Foundation serving Tyne & Wear and Northumberland.

Andrew said, “I’m hugely passionate about the role of mutuals, focused on delivering a balance of meaningful Member value and profitability, enabling long-term positive impact in our communities.”

Caroline Pullich is managing partner at NFU Mutual based out of Boston Spa covering Yorkshire & is also Group Secretary for NFU.

Caroline is responsible for setting the vision, values and strategy in creating a culture where relationships are built on trust for farmers, growers, businesses, stakeholders and rural communities.

NFU Mutual is a leading provider of general insurance, investments, pensions ,life cover, risk management services & financial services.

Prior to joining NFU Mutual Caroline has 31 years in banking having held senior director leadership roles at Barclays and NatWest.

Caroline is also Chair of Institute of Directors for North Yorkshire, Board member for Maggie’s Yorkshire Cancer Charity and sits on the Leadership Group for Leeds Chamber of Commerce.

Claire has been a dedicated member of the York Insurance Institute council for several years and is currently serving her second terms as President. She takes great pride in her role on council, as it allows her to inspire young individuals to pursue careers in the insurance and financial services sectors, whilst also providing support to those already established in these fields. 

With a career spanning over two decades in financial services, Claire began as an administrator. During this time, she diligently completed her financial planning qualifications, which paved the way for her advancement to a paraplanning role and ultimately to her current position as independent financial planner. 

Claire is deeply committed to helping clients achieve their financial goals and identifying gaps in their financial planning. Her passion for the industry and dedication to her clients are evident in her ongoing efforts to provide exceptional service and guidance.  

Emma has been a member of the Insurance Institute of Leeds council for several years and took over as President in March 2024. Earlier roles on council included chairing the Harrogate committee for two years, and serving as Deputy President of Leeds in 2023.

Emma’s theme for her Presidential year has been ‘consistency’, focussing on continuing the strong professional development offering provided to insurance and financial services members across the region. She has also been raising money for the Leeds South & East Foodbank.

Emma has been shortlisted in the ‘Team Leader of the Year’ category at the 2024 Women in Insurance Awards and is passionate about learning and development of colleagues. She has worked as an insurance broker at Marsh Ltd for 10 years.

Joanne Murphy began her career in the early 1990s in London, working in television before transitioning into finance. She spent a decade at General Electric, becoming qualified in training and Six Sigma, and a further 10 years at RBS (now known as NatWest) in various roles.  

Joining the Chartered Banker Institute post-financial crisis, Joanne developed and led the implementation of the CB:PSB Foundation Standard, helping over 340,000 individuals globally achieve a common standard of knowledge and behaviours. She also collaborated with Nottingham University to create a professionalism index for banking resilience and with YouGov to produce detailed research on perceptions of UK banking.    

In 2014, Joanne became the Institute’s first Operations Director and the first female member of the Leadership team. She introduced the Core Values—Collaboration, Integrity, Innovation, and Excellence—and established the Member One Forum, leading to ISO (International Organisation for Standardisation) recognition for the Institute. Joanne also heads their global membership forum, aligning member views with the Institute’s strategy.  

After earning her MBA in Banking and Finance in 2016, Joanne pursued studies in Artificial Intelligence impact on Business Strategy with MIT Sloan School of Management. Her leadership and inclusive personality were pivotal during her tenure as COO and as Deputy CEO, especially during the global pandemic in 2020.  

Joanne recently won the Accomplished Leader, Women in Leadership Award at the CCA Global Excellence Awards. This prestigious honour recognises her exceptional leadership skills, visionary impact on business and people, and unwavering dedication during her tenure as COO.  

Joanne was appointed as Interim CEO of the Institute in May 2024. 

Kate has been on Council for the Insurance Institute of Leeds and the North East Regional Forum since 2019 originally joining the North East Regional Forum to support and share best practice across the North East Regional council members

For her Presidential year she focused on the theme of “Resilience” following a few years of difficult trading and changes within our workplaces. Kate has supported the team in providing educational events to its Leeds members and also fundraising for Sue Ryder Manorlands.

Within the Presidential Role, Kate supported the organising of the Leeds Annual Dinner, and also attended regional dinners as a top table guest to interact with more institute and allow them to share best practice and work together.

Kate is interested in and looks to support engaging young professionals and new starters into the Financial Services industry and looks to attend and support school and university careers training and sessions

She has recently started a new role at Clear Insurance Management as their Regional Head of Professional Risks where she specialises in Professional Indemnity, Cyber and Management Liability for professional businesses.

Martin Hathaway started his career trading financial futures before moving to Yorkshire in 1995 and working for Leeds Chamber of Commerce. He then became Chief Executive of Yorkshire and Humber Chambers of Commerce in 2000.

Martin joined the Mid Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce in 2014 as Managing Director where he oversees its operations and serves its membership, connecting, supporting and representing organisations across the Halifax, Huddersfield and Wakefield regions.

Outside the Chamber, Martin is Chair of a venture capital company that provides loans and equity investments into SMEs across Yorkshire and was also a founding director of YourRail, the first company to deliver mobile ticketing for the UKs rail industry.

Martin is chair of the West Yorkshire Local Employment Plan, working with businesses to identify their potential future skills gaps, working with Colleges, Schools, universities and private training providers to make sure there is a pipeline of prospective employees

In his spare time Martin enjoys spending time with his family, playing golf and riding his Vespa PX.

Phoebe Webb joined the Harrogate Sub-Committee of the Leeds Insurance Institute in 2017 as Secretary. She is currently serving her second term as Chairperson and was the youngest Chairperson nominated in the 75 year history of the Harrogate Local Committee.

In 2018 Phoebe assisted James Ramirez who was the President of Leeds CII at the time and fellow committee members in creating what is now known as the “Emerging Insurance Professionals” (EIP). Phoebe still sits on the board for EIP and acts as Social Secretary where she helps organise successful events for young members in Leeds and surrounding area.

Being involved with the Chartered Insurance Institute so early in Phoebe’s career helped establish key relationships within the industry and has given her the skills to encourage and mentor our younger members.

Phoebe has recently started a role with Pen Underwriting as the Business Development Manager for the North East, Yorkshire and the Humber.

Robin Fieth joined the Building Societies Association (BSA) as chief executive in December 2013. Previously he was executive director, members and operations at the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW). Robin originally joined the ICAEW in 2002 as director of finance. During his career, he has also held a number of other senior positions in the corporate sector, including group finance director and company secretary at AIM listed Transacsys plc. He spent the first 10 years of his career with PwC.

The BSA is the voice of building societies in the UK, speaking out on issues relevant to building societies and their members (savers and borrowers). Together, building societies serve over 25 million customers across the UK; have total assets of over £500 billion and have a 23% market share of the residential mortgage market, and 19% share of the savings market.

Robin is a fellow of the ICAEW, a non-executive director of Co-operatives UK and a member of the General Assembly of the European Association of Co-operative Banks. He is married with three grown-up children.