Outgoing Canada Lord Mayor Nicholas Lyons will return to Phoenix Group as chair
The outgoing Canada Lord Mayor Nicholas Lyons will return to insurance giant Phoenix Group as chair, when his term ends next month.
Lyons will resume his role with FTSE100 pension firm following a sabbatical for his mayoralty, which ends in November.
He will be made chair of the board of directors on 1 December, replacing Alastair Barbour, who will step down after 10 years running the firm.
Lyons was born in Ireland and had a long and distinguished business career, including at Lehman Brothers until 2003. He retired to sit on boards of financial institutions and charities, before his tenure as Lord Mayor.
Nick Lyons said: “I am very much looking forward to returning to Phoenix in December. I would like to thank Alastair for doing a tremendous job as Chair during my sabbatical as well as for his enormous contribution and support for Phoenix over the past 10 years.”
The Lord Mayor of London is a representative role, advocating for the Square Mile across the world and speaking for business and finance.
Barbour welcomed Lyons back “following his very successful tenure as Lord Mayor, where alongside other worthy achievements.”
On his departure, he said It has been “an honour and a privilege to have held the role of Chair over the past year, and to have been a part of the Phoenix Group story over the last ten years.”
Phoenix is the largest long-term savings and retirement firm in the UK with some £269bn of assets under administration on behalf of around 12 million customers.
Lyons will return to his post in a period of flux for the industry as politicians and regulators push for more cash to flow into domestic companies.
As Lord Mayor, Lyons spearheaded a push to get more cash invested into start-ups and convened a group of the country’s top pension firms to commit to investing five per cent of their assets in unlisted companies.
Phoenix boss Andy Briggs has also sat on the Capital Markets Industry Taskforce and has been at the heart of efforts to get more cash flowing into the stock market.