A chief executive who spearheaded 400% growth in new business at Scottish Friendly is to leave after 11 years in the role.

Fiona McBain has decided to step down and will be succeeded by the current deputy chief executive Jim Galbraith on 1 January 2017.

Having been finance director of Scottish Friendly, Fiona took over the role of CEO on 1 January 2006 when the Group had £530M in assets and sales of £5.5M.

The firm said she had led the mutual on “a journey of remarkable growth and diversification through probably the most turbulent time in the recent history of financial services”.

The assets have grown more than 500% and new business has risen over 400% to £2.5bn and £29M respectively whilst membership has increased by over 100,000 to nearly 500,000.

Ms McBain said: “I am extremely proud of what we have achieved together at Scottish Friendly. With a great staff of less than 100 people, our strategy has reaped huge rewards in terms of assets and scale for Scottish Friendly policyholders. For me another tangible sign of our progress is that when I started as CEO I was often greeted by industry consultants with ‘Scottish who?’, but these days the opening line is usually ‘What is Scottish Friendly up to now?’

“I am delighted that the board has appointed Jim Galbraith with regulatory approval to take over as CEO; he has been a key player in all aspects of our success and I know he will lead the team to continue to build the business for the benefit of Scottish Friendly’s policyholders. He is taking on one of the best jobs in the sector supported by an experienced and talented staff.”

Mr Galbraith said: “Fiona has been at the helm of Scottish Friendly through one of the most difficult periods in the history of the financial services industry. It is a testament to her patience, strategic vision and her ability to inspire others that over this period the Scottish Friendly Group has continued to strengthen and grow.

“Succeeding Fiona is going to be hard but I look forward to working with everyone at Scottish Friendly to continue to develop the Group’s ‘innovate, diversify and grow’ strategy.”

Michael Walker, chairman of Scottish Friendly, said: “We shall all miss Fiona enormously. We respect and understand her decision after 11 years in charge to look for new opportunities and challenges but we shall still miss her.

“We are delighted that Jim Galbraith, with whom Fiona has worked for so long, has agreed to become our new CEO and we are looking forward to continuing to develop the business of Scottish Friendly under his leadership. We give Fiona all our best wishes for the future and thank her for everything that she has done for Scottish Friendly during her time here.”