BT Financial Group (BTFG) has today announced the internal appointment of Craig Lawrenson to lead the Asgard business.
BTFG’s General Manager of Platforms, Marketing & Communications, John Shuttleworth, said, “It is fantastic to be making an internal appointment into the Head of Asgard position after a very comprehensive internal and external search over the past few months.
“Craig is very well positioned to take on this leadership role,” Shuttleworth said. “He knows what advisers and dealer groups want from their platform providers, he has more knowledge than just about anyone on what platforms can deliver to advisers and their clients, he’s deeply engaged in the current regulatory reform agenda and he knows how to motivate a team to consistently deliver high quality projects and product enhancements.
“That’s quite a combination of skills which Craig’s developed over many years in the BT Wrap business, and based on this background he’ll be hitting the ground running in Asgard,” Shuttleworth said.
“Craig’s joining Asgard at an important time for the business. It has good momentum in terms of its service delivery, its new distribution structure which better aligns our team to advisers, and the exciting pipeline of product enhancements which will build on recent developments on the Asgard master trust and the newly launched first phase of our three-year program of equities enhancements.”
Lawrenson has been with BT for some 14 years, most recently as Head of Product and Strategy for BT Wrap with responsibility for the design, execution and ongoing management of product strategy for BT Wrap. A chartered accountant, he joined BTFG in 1996 in fund accounting and during his career at BTFG has held various roles in Wrap operations, product management, strategy and product development.
Lawrenson’s appointment is effective 1 October 2010.