Key personnel within MIP GB have extensive commercial experience, much of which has been gained in the Financial Services sector.

David Hill - Director

Gaining a degree in Economics in the late 1980's David moved straight onto the graduate training program with the Royal Sun Alliance. Soon after he joined the Prudential, then the Halifax Building Society, before starting his own IFA practice in the late 90's. The business grew rapidly, as did David's increasing interest in property. With the help of his business partners he went on to create a national overseas property distributorship, selling millions of pounds of property all over the world.

Over the years David has been very successful in creating multiple incomes streams for himself and his family. He has recently acquired a stake in a taxi business and believes that more people should be trying to reduce their dependency on single income sources.

Phil Smith - Director

Early in his career, Phil spent 3 years with the Prudential Assurance as a man from the Pru where he gained an introduction to the Financial Services industry. Later he moved into the manufacturing sector and has held senior management roles with large multi-national corporations, most notably as General Manager, Films Europe, for The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co and as Managing Director, European Films, for the Huntsman Corporation. Phil and his family lived in Germany for five years during his tenure of these roles and he still has a basic understanding of the German language.

During his time with the Huntsman Corporation, Phil became a part of their European mergers and acquisitions team, carrying out due diligence on prospective acquisition partners and evaluating their likely fit to the business. Upon his return to the UK, he held other senior positions with Huntsman Corporation before becoming Chief Executive of an OFEX start-up company manufacturing new and patented biodegradable plastic products. This was an exciting time for Phil as he led this new company through its early growth stages and on to a successful initial public offering and flotation onto AIM, raising £5m in the process. The whole process of presenting to analyst meetings, press calls and television appearances all helped to expose Phil and the company to new institutional and private investors. During Phils time as CEO with this business, the number of shareholders in the company grew ten-fold from just over 200 to somewhere approaching 3,000.

More recently, Phil has been appointed Chairman and Managing Director of a packaging company in Wigan, whilst launching a management consulting business, involved in overseas property investments as well as general management advice, before getting together with his co-founders at MIP GB.

Mark Hedley - UK Business Manager

Mark started his career on the Barclays advanced training programme and moved swiftly through the ranks to achieve a board appointed managerial position. He became one of the youngest Premier Managers in the banks history. During his six years in that role Mark helped high net worth customers with their complex financial planning; many of these clients are still with him today, many years later.

Mark attributes much of his success as a trusted Premier Manager to his philosophy of ensuring his clients were always given sound financial advice. He helped many clients successfully enter the realms of Private Banking, Stockbrokers and Discretionary Fund Management; during these times Mark gained an extensive knowledge of differing asset classes and appreciated the importance of diversification. He left Barclays Bank in 2003 to set up his own IFA practice with his business partner Cliff Hammond in the Peterborough area.

Since then Mark has been helping clients protect their assets and it was his search for attractive alternative products that led him to Life Settlements, one which he believes has a very important place within investor portfolios. Early in 2009 MIP GB asked Mark to take the key role of developing relationships with Financial Advisors and its network of Business Development Managers across the UK.

Daniel Lunt - Head of Marketing & IT

Having started as a junior graphic designer almost 10 years ago, Dan quickly rose through the ranks to become the youngest Senior Manager in a large overseas property company. As Web & Marketing Manager, he was responsible for all aspects of corporate image, web presence, traditional and web marketing, marketing budgets and the acquisition of new agents. In the 3 years he spent in this position, the company grew by over 1,000%, largely as a result of the website strategy being employed.

Following this success, Dan set up his own Design & Marketing Consultancy to provide these services to a variety of companies in different markets, which included: Buy-to-Let Hotels; Medical Professionals Recruitment; Overseas and UK Property; Furniture Manufacturing and Financial Services.