International SIPP provider STM Group has hired a new chief operation officer to boost governance and risk management, the firm’s full-year results have revealed.

A trading update for the 12 months to 31 December, released today, announced the appointment of Peter Marr as COO.

Mr Marr formerly worked as COO of Police Mutual, which provides insurance, mortgages and savings products to its members, overseeing a staff in excess of 600 people.

Prior to that he was operations director at Capita Insurance Services.

STM says Mr Marr “has a track record of delivering improvements and efficiencies to organisations that he has previously worked in.”

The company said the recruitment was the final major new appointment for the group in enhancing its governance and risk management framework.

Part of this process started in early 2017 with the appointment of a head of enterprise risk management and continued in 2018 with the appointment of a group internal auditor.

As well as the COO appointment, the firm has also recently appointed a full-time group counsel and company secretary, to take over from Elizabeth Plummer who will retire later on in the year.  

A statement read: “These appointments, together with key appointments to the board over the past 12 months who each bring with them significant depth of experience, will add to the robustness of the business.”

Elsewhere the report said the group expects to deliver revenue of £21.3m, down slightly on 2017’s figure of £21.5m and profit before tax of £3.9m for 2018 (2017: £4m), which includes an expected £0.5 million technical reserve release from London & Colonial Assurance plc (2017: £1.3m).

STM says this represents underlying revenue of £20.5m (2017: £20.2m) and underlying pre-tax profits of £3.7m (2017: £3.2m) “demonstrating year-on-year growth in these key metrics of the underlying business.” 
 
Alan Kentish, CEO of STM Group, said: “Whilst 2018 started off as a challenging year for STM, there is no doubt that our management team responded admirably and as a result of the Deloitte review we move into 2019 as a stronger and more robust business.
 
“Notwithstanding the challenges, we are pleased to have delivered a year of growth and been active in making two strategically significant acquisitions.
 
“I am delighted that Peter Marr has joined the team and he will no doubt be a valuable asset in helping the executives to deliver increased value and confidence to our shareholders and our wider stakeholders.

“2019 will be a year of consolidation and investment, but with a new enlarged and experienced Plc board, we will have all the building blocks in place for our ambitious short term growth and acquisition strategy.”