Dunstan Thomas founder and CEO Chris Read has taken the role of chief growth officer at parent company Curtis Banks Group.

He will be replaced as CEO by COO of six years Ihab El-Saie.

Before becoming COO at fintech Dunstan Thomas Mr El-Saie was managing director of fintech Digital Keystone, which was acquired by Dunstan Thomas in 2016.

He previously led another technology business SDS Applications, which was acquired by BancTec in 2005.

Mr Read founded fintech Dunstan Thomas and has served as CEO for the last 36 years.

SIPP provider Curtis Banks acquired the fintech in 2020.

Mr El-Saie was responsible for the reorganisation of the people and skills side of the firm during the acquisition period.

Chris Read, chief growth officer at Curtis Banks Group, said: “Ihab has done a great job creating and driving through a new operating model which ensured that our brilliant people, with a wide range of skills, were optimally deployed to support our growing list of live projects as we grew. That was a great grounding for the top job. I know the company I founded is in safe hands. I will continue to sit on the leadership executive at Dunstan Thomas and will be heavily involved in its sales and business development efforts looking forward.”

Dunstan Thomas faced some significant challenges during the Coronavirus pandemic which impacted revenue and profitability but Curtis Banks said it expects the firm to see significant improvement this year.

The fintech said it is currently ‘on the cusp’ of unveiling a series of new offings for pensions, platform and wealth management markets. It is also piloting a number of native, cloud-based micro-services to support financial advice and tax planning.

SIPP provider Curtis Banks reported a modest 4.7% rise in pre-tax profits to £14m in 2021 as SIPP numbers fell year on year by 2,544. It blamed a high attrition rate and the impact of Covid-19 for the fall, and said it expected recovery in SIPP numbers this year.