Pensions provider The Embark Group has snapped up one of James Hay’s directors and announced three other senior appointments.

Chris Smeaton joins as the group head of commercial marketing, following a 17-year career with James Hay, where he was a non-exec.

He was part of the team driving marketing activities, and latterly leading its commercial and strategic development.

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Prior to this he was head of platform at Santander private banking in the UK having performed several roles across marketing, proposition and eCommerce. He holds FPC1 & FPC 2 qualifications. Mr Smeaton will work from the Salisbury office.

The other 3 appointments are:

• Abbie Knight, who expands her portfolio to become group head of digital marketing, whilst retaining her responsibilities as a director of DISCUS, the discretionary investment proposition research arm, which Embark recently took over. She will lead the deployment of the firm’s ‘digital voice’ across all group activities and channels.

• Simon Smith joins as group head of client money operations. He has extensive experience of managing and steering organisations through complex regulatory requirements and demands, and has previously held CF1, CF10a & CF30 positions in complex environments. His last role was at FxPro where he was the director of operations & head of research. He will work out of the London office.

• Michael McKelvey joins as senior program manager, coming from his current role as an executive director of Coutts in the UK. Prior to this, he worked at Barclays Wealth for over six years leading major domestic and international change initiatives.

Phil Smith, CEO of the Embark Group, said: “Chris, Simon and Mike are each tremendous additions to our long-term talent base, and collectively bring significant experience and competence to our fast growing portfolio of activities alongside exceptional talent such as Abbie. They are further evidence of our attractiveness to ‘hungry’ talent in this changing marketplace, and our ability to attract quality from within and without our competitor universe.”