The holding company of RFIB Group has named Steven Beard as its chief financial officer, it has been announced.

Additionally he has been appointed CFO of MGA business Limehouse Agencies and he will also become CEO of a newly created services company, George Yard Services (GYS). 

GYS will be a specialist central service company, created to provide back office support to RFIB and Limehouse. Its functions will include finance, risk, compliance, HR, IT and company secretariat. It will initially comprise RFIB employees who will transfer to GYS.

Beard begins both roles on 4 December 2017 and will spearhead the launch of GYS.

Prior to this, Beard most recently served as group chief executive of technology and professional services company, Agilisys, which under his management became one of the largest employee owned businesses within the UK.

Prior to Agilisys, Beard served in a number of senior positions in the UK and the US with global business process and technology company, Xchanging. When Xchanging listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2007 he was responsible for the largest part of the group including XIS and XCS. Beard has also served as CFO of Redwave plc, the UK based venture capital business. He began his career working for a series of Lloyd’s managing agents including Navigators, Brockbank and XL Capital.

Commenting on the appointment, RFIB CEO Dennis Mahoney said: "Steven is a landmark appointment for our business. He brings an exceptional track record to our CFO function and is the ideal candidate to launch and build our new central services business. Steven has pioneered the use of new technologies throughout his career and this approach will be central to GYS and across the RFIB and Limehouse businesses. 

“GYS will be a key pillar in our business portfolio. It will enable our broking and underwriting teams to focus on what they do best and will ensure we continue to attract leading talent who share our independent, client focused approach."