With extensive experience in the financial services specialising in insurance, banking and investments, Alan Cook was appointed a CBE in the 2006 New Year’s Honours’ List following his dedicated work at COO of Prudential UK & Europe and his major achievement in turning around NS&I as Chief Executive Officer.

Cook has since gone on to enjoy an outstanding career in the finance industry having held senior positions in both the private and public sectors including Chairman of Irish Life (the now Permanent TSB Group) for over six years and the Highways Agency. With the ability to improve both efficiency and cost control across businesses, Cook went on to implement a radical 5-year refinancing plan as Managing Director of the Post Office in 2006 which led to the company successfully generating a £73m operating profit at the time of his retirement in 2010.

Following these exceptional successes, Cook’s appointments have since included Senior Independent Director at Sainsbury’s Bank and Chairman at LV= since 2017. A previous chairman of Action for M.E. Cook remains an active patron of the charity. A passionate advocate of higher education Cook is also the Chairman of the University of Bedfordshire and inspires audiences as a motivational speaker and presenter. He is a firm believer that there is always a way to increase productivity, striving to change opinions of other top business leaders and help those come to the realisation that achieving ‘more for less’ is very much a real possibility.