Paul Bradshaw

Money Marketing Awards 2017
Outstanding Contribution Award

Good evening! I can’t count the number of times I have sat through these awards. By this stage I’ve usually been a bit hammered. And, to be frank; just waiting for the presentations to stop. (Sorry Natalie!)Well, only a few minutes to go. And as there is sadness as well as a celebration attached to tonight’s winner, I’d really appreciate it if we could keep the conversations down for a moment or two.

The first thing to say is that many of you will not have heard of this year’s winner. But he has influenced what you do every working day. In an industry not famous for innovation he had the vision to create something completely different. Back in the 70’s when I first met him, all the product providers were building unit-linked sales forces. But he created a business focussed 100% on what used to be called brokers. Today’s financial advisers.  And at a time when the service provided by life companies was terrible (I was tempted to say crap) he created a business that won Best Service awards year after year at this event. More important, he created an “open architecture” business model that put the adviser in the driving seat when it came to selecting investment vehicles.

That company was, of course, Skandia Life. And the visionary and architect behind it was an actuary. An actuary with an attitude! And an all-round good bloke! Ten years ago, he also became the founder chairman of the Nucleus platform. And he continued to share his wisdom, intelligence, humour and enthusiasm with countless people; until sadly, and tragically, he passed away, earlier this year

I would now like to ask his son Chris, and ask David Ferguson, the CEO of Nucleus, to accept the Outstanding Contribution Award on behalf of a truly exceptional winner…. Paul Bradshaw!