Our base is in the Kentish Spa town of Royal Tunbridge Wells, with our management team located here as well as in the North West. Our Compliance Consultants are based around the country which gives us the geographical spread and reach to deliver an effective and rapid service where it really counts — in our clients' offices.
The Team
The team is made up of Operations, Research, Technical Consultancy, Marketing and Accountant/Secretariat.
Research provides an important service to both management and clients in monitoring FSA publications, the trade press and specialist compliance publications.
Operations controls the day to day administration of client relationships, client communications and the legal and accounting elements of client contracts. The Technical Consultants provide a valuable service for both Associates and clients through e-mail and telephone helplines. Their background in insurance company and broker environments gives them a mix of viewpoints invaluable in providing balanced advice.
Our team of Associates are based across the country to ensure they are in close contact with their clients and can deliver an effective and rapid service where it really counts - in our clients' offices. They are insurance industry professionals, professionally qualified and have a wide range of skills that ensure that the solutions provided are not only compliant but also meet your business needs and, as far as possible, contribute towards your bottom line.
Head Office
- Barry Woodward FCII - Managing Director
- Jennifer Cope BA (Hons), FCII - Research Controller
- Charles Maddocks BA (Hons) ACII, Chartered Insurer - Compliance Consultant and Marketing Manager
- Simon Medwin MA, FCII, FCCA - Senior Technical Consultant
- Neil Williams FCII, FCIM - Development Manager
- Mervyn Reeves ACIS - Accountant
- Linda Hardy - Operations
- Stewart Stubbs - Technical Consultant
- Carly Brown - Administration Assistant
South East
South West
North East
North West & Scotland
East Anglia
Northern Home Counties & North London
Northern Ireland
London & South
- Charles Maddocks BA (Hons) ACII - Compliance Consultant and Marketing Manager
- Simon Medwin MA, FCII, FCCA - Senior Technical Consultant
- Bryan Stewart FCII – Associate
- Stewart Stubbs - Technical Consultant
- Philip Watson FCII - Associate
Barry Woodward FCII (Managing Director)
Barry began his professional career in the Motor Underwriting division of Minster Insurance Company in 1966 and he moved through various appointments rising to the position of Regional Motor Fleet Underwriter, Birmingham.
In 1980 he became Birmingham Branch Manager of The Elizabethan Insurance Company which later became Lombard Insurance Co. Ltd. Barry was responsible for establishing the new Birmingham operations and in 1985 moved to Manchester to take responsibility for this major Branch with 50+ staff.
In 1988 Barry was approached to join Independent Insurance Co. Ltd. as Development Manager, North responsible for the Branch operations in Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle and Birmingham.
Following a period of three years as Head Office Motor Underwriting Manager (1991-1994) he was headhunted to join the new direct operations of the Provincial Insurance Co.: Prospero Direct, as Head of Underwriting & Claims.
In 1995 Barry rejoined Independent again as Development Manager but this time with the additional responsibility for Scotland and the two offices there in Glasgow and Aberdeen.
In 1997 he was appointed Chairman and Managing Director of the award-winning loss adjuster PCS Ltd. This consisted of over 360 professional employees in over 12 offices. He subsequently successfully sold this operation to Royal and Sun Alliance in 2002 before joining ICS in late 2002.
Bill Atkinson FCII (Associate)
Bill began his career in General Insurance with Royal on Merseyside in 1965. During his 28 years with them, he was National Sales Training Manager, Branch Manager, Area Business Manager and Customer Service Manager in Liverpool, Chelmsford, Watford and Hertford.
He moved across to broking in 1994, joining Frizzell in Poole as their National Sales Manager, where he operated the Lloyd’s binders for their Affinity Schemes. On the takeover by Marsh, he moved to their City office.
In 1998, he joined NFU Mutual in Stratford upon Avon as National Sales Manger, later moving across to their broker only company Avon in Liverpool as Area Manager for North / Scotland / NI. Here he ran Personal, Commercial and Claims units including their National Recoveries Unit.
In 1999, Avon was sold to NIG/Churchill and then in 2004 onto RBS where FSA culture and disciplines were already embedded. Bill managed this significant change with minimal loss of staff and business.
Overall, he has worked in - a variety of strategic and operational roles; Insurers -mutual and proprietary; Brokers; Head Office and Branches; London and Regions.
Bill has always been close to the market place, especially networks and community brokers. He has been involved in broker panel management, audit and quality control throughout his career – on “both sides of the fence”.
From 2007, he has run his own business and training consultancy.
Richard Bruce BA (Hons), FCII (Associate)
Richard started his insurance career in 1969, as a graduate trainee with Eagle Star based at their Norwich Office. There followed a series of Sales and then Branch Manager appointments with spells at Coventry, Rugby and Dover.
In 1987 he was promoted to Sales Manager for the West Midlands and then in 1990 to the role of Manager Financial Insurances and Personal Lines based in Birmingham.
In 1998 there followed a move to Leeds as Building Society and Banking - Account Manager followed in 2001 with the appointment to Client Liaison Manager – Strategic Partnerships. Here he became heavily involved in the roll out of GISC rules to both clients and internally, which pre- empted his subsequent move into compliance.
He was the UK Compliance Manager for Personal Lines. During this period he was also the Zurich Insurance representative on the ABI General Distribution Committee Regulatory Steering Group and he assisted the branch operations by holding regular workshops for partner brokers on the then impending FSA regulation.
David Hirst (Associate)
David’s career in the financial world has been in sales training and compliance with several major companies. He was a regional compliance officer for Allied Dunbar and ultimately Zurich, monitoring compliance and working with sales management for eight years as part of the Zurich investment compliance department.
Following that, taking redundancy in 1999, he decided to take up self employment as a compliance consultant for Independent Financial Advisers. Adding GISC consultancy for general insurance brokers and then to the FSA regulatory system for both insurance brokers and mortgage brokers.
David joined ICS in March 2011 bringing a wealth of industry and compliance knowledge and many years of consultancy experience.
Rob Cawthorne, MA (Associate)
Rob Cawthorne’s working career started in 1977 when he graduated from Oxford University to join National Westminster Bank as a graduate management trainee in the International Division. He subsequently spent over 20 years in a variety of roles throughout the Group in the City and New York including graduate recruitment, strategic planning, project management, internal audit and corporate governance.
Rob subsequently joined Gloucester-based Ecclesiastical Insurance Group in 2001 where he was Head of Legal and Regulatory Services with responsibility for ensuring that the Group complied with the wide-ranging external legal and regulatory requirements, especially those of the FSA. In particular Rob developed and managed the relationships with the FSA including ARROW risk assessment and thematic visits, and also two of the leading international credit agencies, Standard & Poor’s and AM Best. Rob was also responsible for implementing the successful Treating Customers Fairly programme in the Group. Whilst working for Ecclesiastical Rob sat on the European Committee of the Association of British Insurers and Regulations Committee of the Investment and Life Assurance Group.
Rob left Ecclesiastical at the end of August 2008 and joined ICS as an Associate responsible for clients based throughout the South-West of England and South Wales. Outside of ICS Rob is a Non-Executive Director of Gloucestershire Enterprise Limited and Chair of the Gloucestershire First Urban Economic Advisory Panel.
Jennifer Cope BA (Hons), FCII (Research Controller)
Jennifer is a professional researcher, who has held a variety of specialist underwriting and technical posts in both the UK Provincial general market and the specialist London Market property area.
Utilising her languages skills in both French and German she became a specialist researcher for European insurance company merger and acquisition activity; taking part in a number of due diligence exercises.
Her function since joining ICS in January 2003 is to support the technical and operational teams with the provision of regular information about regulatory matters, including changes proposed by FSA and their likely impact on ICS procedures and clients, and specific project work.
Terry Fordham FCII (Associate)
Terry began his insurance career with Guardian Royal Exchange Plc. (GRE) in 1967, initially in their London City Branch underwriting team before moving into the claims department in 1982.
In 1988 he moved into the training area (underwriting and claims processing) of the GRE Service Centre before moving on again into the Central Training Unit in 1989. Here he remained until 1996 when he was promoted into the National Partnerships Division where he eventually rose to the position of Head of Training.
Following the acquisition of the company by AXA, Terry decided to take early retirement and develop his own training consultancy - Learning Matters (UK) Ltd. and here he became an approved training scheme accreditor for GISC and a trainer in GISC regulation as well as a qualified NVQ assessor.
This interest in regulation and its impact in the general insurance market eventually led him to join ICS in late 2003.
Bob Goodge (Associate)
Bob began his insurance career in 1967 when he joined Stewart Wrightson Limited in the City (later to merge with and become part of the Willis Group) as a professional trainee.
Between 1967 and 1987 Bob held various directorships and:
- managed the risk and insurance requirements of major industrial and commercial clients;
- developed and managed captive management companies in the UK and overseas;
- implemented company-wide computer systems;
- led a trading subsidiary specialising in the provision of insurance and facultative reinsurance services, risk financing, risk management, and captive management services to a worldwide client base.
In 1987 Bob became a director of Willis Corroon Limited where, as Operations Director, he was responsible for the UK's commercial and personal lines working practices and I.T.
In 1995 Bob set up his own consulting company Logical Alternative specialising in the support of businesses in the financial, professional, consulting and service sectors. Assignments have included:
- project management, strategic and operational reviews, business continuity and disaster recovery planning;
- the determination, documentation, deployment and registration of management systems to the requirements of ISO 9001:2000 for Claims Managers, Insurance Brokers, Underwriting Agents and Lloyd's syndicates;
- advice and support in connection with GISC and FSA regulation.
As an internationally certificated QMS 2000 Lead Auditor, Bob conducted ISO 9001:2000 audits across the insurance sector for one the world's leading certification bodies.
We are delighted that Bob has joined our team and is able to add substantially to the breadth and depth of the general insurance broking experience available to our ICS clients.
Barry Hammond ACII, MEWI, Chartered Insurance Practitioner (Associate)
Barry’s career in general insurance broking began in 1964. He has been employed by Hoggs, Willis and Sedgwicks and has held posts up to Country Board level in the UK and Australia. For seven years at Willis he was Managing Director of E.J. Welton & Co. Ltd., Willis' wholly owned Lloyds subsidiary specialising in the wholesale broking of Leisure and Affinity Schemes.
His experience covers all broking and management matters including handling complex corporate accounts, running large business operations, setting up successful new operations, the creation and broking of slips and schemes placed in the London and Lloyds markets and complex claims negotiations on behalf of clients.
In 1999 Barry formed his own risk and change management consultancy and is an Expert Witness particularly able to advise on broker negligence cases.
Charles Maddocks BA (Hons), ACII, CIM Advanced Certificate. (Compliance Consultant and Marketing Manager)
Charles began his career in insurance in 1972 on the Royal graduate management development programme then he moved out of the industry into Building Society Management with the Alliance Building Society in 1976.
Here he qualified as an Associate of the Chartered Building Societies Institute as well as becoming an evening lecturer in Building Society Law.
In 1984 he became a Training Manager with Alliance before moving to become Branch Manager for Gateway Building Society from 1985-1986.
In 1986 he rejoined the insurance industry as Sales Manager, Financial Markets for London & Edinburgh Insurance. He remained in this role until 1994 when he was promoted to Sales & Marketing Manager, Affinity Group Operations.
Following the acquisition by Norwich Union he moved into the Corporate Partnerships Division on the sales and marketing side in the role of Delivery Manager. Here he was responsible for providing a full range of services to NU's corporate clients including the provision of advice on general insurance regulatory requirements.
Charles joined the team at ICS in Autumn 2003 and took on additional responsibilities as Marketing Manager from November 2004.
Simon Medwin MA, FCII, FCCA (Technical Manager)
In 1973, having gained a 1st class honours degree from Cambridge, Simon began his career in Accountancy working as a trainee for Rank Hovis McDougall. He moved from here to ITT Components Group and then on to Dresser Wayne Europe as Financial Accountant.
In 1979 he moved on to Satchwell Control Systems as Group Financial Accountant before moving on again in 1983 to Van Nostrand Reinhold.
In 1986 Simon moved into the insurance industry as Partnership Accountant for Lawrence Insurance Group - life, pensions and general insurance brokers, where he remained until the end of 2003 by which time he had attained the position of Senior Partner and was fully responsible for the Group's FSA compliance.
During his time at Lawrence Insurance Group Simon developed his insurance knowledge and additionally held the post of President of the Tunbridge Wells Chartered Insurance Institute during the CII's centenary year.
Mervyn Reeves ACIS (Accountant)
Mervyn has since 1962 built a career in management accounting, audit and secretarial work. He has gained professional experience working with such companies as Amoco (Management Accountant), Brooke Bond (Systems Auditor) and MS Instruments plc (Company Accountant).
In 1988, Mervyn was Head of Finance at MCCH Society Ltd, which was involved in care in the community, working with an £8m budget and 500 staff. In 1997, he took up a position as Finance Manager with Dial-A-Ride, a registered charity.
Mervyn joined ICS in late 2003 as Company Secretary and Accountant.
Bryan Stewart FCII (Associate)
Bryan has over 40 years experience in the general insurance industry having started his career in 1962 in the Head Office Claims Department of Royal Exchange (later becoming Guardian Royal Exchange).
In 1984 he joined Lombard General Insurance Company as UK Claims Manager and left in 1990 to take up the appointment as Head of Claims for the Solicitors Indemnity Fund.
He remained in this position until being headhunted back to Lombard in 1998 as Head of Claims moving on to become Head of Corporate Claims for the Group following the merger in 1999 when the company became Groupama. He was promoted to his current role of Group Compliance Officer in May 2000.
Bryan was a member of the Board of the Motor Insurers Bureau (Director of Audit) and was also a member of the Board of Motor Insurers’ Information Centre. He has been an honorary lecturer at the CII Training Centre and has lectured on such topics as:
- Regulatory regimes and the general insurance approach
- Governance and monitoring of outsourced functions under the FSA
- Insurance fraud, money laundering and financial crime
- Compliance and internal audit roles and responsibilities
Stewart Stubbs (Technical Consultant)
Following a career in underwriting and operations management with a leading composite insurer, Stewart has spent over 11 years with Forester Financial Services, most recently as Compliance Auditor. In this role Stewart was involved in conducting audits to ensure brokers’ compliance with FSA regulation.
Stewart joined ICS in December 2005. In addition to his general insurance compliance consultant role. he conducts audits to ensure 'Financial Advisers’ compliance with FSA regulation.
Carly Brown (Administration Assistant)
Carly gained a degree in Business Management at theUniversity of Gloucestershire. Following university, Carly has 5 years admin experience and joined us in January 2010.
Leo Timmermans (Associate)
Leo has a professional background in Organisation & Methods, having started as an analyst with Decca in 1969. Subsequent appointments in this field were with NAAFI and Hardys Furnishers Ltd before 1980 when he moved into insurance and joined British Reserve Insurance Co.
In 1990, Leo joined London & Edinburgh Insurance, now Norwich Union, where he undertook a number of senior management roles in the Extended Warranty and Creditor division, before finally being promoted to Head of Account Management, concentrating particularly on the support for the major Building Society relationships of the insurer.
Neil Williams, FCII, FCIM, MNLP - Development Manager
Neil brings a wealth of specialist knowledge from being a senior executive in both an insurance underwriting company and a regional schemes broker.
With over 35 years’ experience in the financial services sector, Neil has worked at senior management level for a number of insurance companies including Royal Insurance (UK), Lombard General Insurance and Independent Insurance Group, in sales, business development and operations.
He spent four years as Managing Director, building and implementing the strategy of Deacon Insurance Services, focusing particularly on the development of the company’s property insurance schemes. He was responsible for the turnaround of Deacon by driving operational and sales change as well as rebuilding the reputation of the company with underwriters.
Neil has always been interested in people and communications and commenced his coaching training by studying NLP (Neuro Linquistic Programming) in 1997. Subsequent to this, he is a Master NLP Practitioner and a Member of the ICF (International Coach Federation).
In the last 4 years Neil has used a combination of his business experience and his coaching training to benefit many clients in developing their leadership teams. Whether it is called mentoring or coaching this one to one approach supports managers to develop quickly and get to the next level. Neil is also a supervisor for coaches where the knowledge gained can also be beneficial in supporting changes of culture within organisations.
Philip Watson FCII (Associate)
Philip began his career with Royal Insurance, in 1967 as an Inspector. He was then appointed to the staff of John Swire and seconded to Taikoo Royal Insurance, a joint venture between Royal Insurance and John Swire in Hong Kong, handling in-house business for a group employing over 10,000 staff in Hong Kong, including airport and maritime risk.
From 1983-89, Philip was Managing Director of Allianz Cornhill Insurance (Far East) in Hong Kong, which he developed into a profitable business within three years of inception.
In 1989, on returning to the UK, he was appointed UK Agency Manager for Cornhill Insurance PLC and subsequently Branch Manager at Luton.
From 1995 to 2000, Philip was Managing Director of John Charcol Insurance Brokers.
While in this post, he developed a small delegated authority scheme into a national broking operation maximising business opportunity within the group and nationwide.
From 2000 to 2003, Philip was an Associate Director of The Travel Protection Group plc
Since 2003, Philip has been working as a Consultant advising brokerages in becoming compliant with the FSA requirements , including training, seminars and ongoing assistance.