Openwork has announced the appointment of Richard Houghton as chief financial officer (CFO).

Houghton, who also joins the Openwork Holdings Limited Board, initially joined Openwork as interim CFO in February this year. He has more than 30 years’ experience in senior positions across the insurance and banking industry including chief financial officer, chief operating officer and non-executive director roles.

He started his career in audit, corporate recovery and corporate finance with Deloitte before leaving practice to join the financial services industry.

Between 1998–2007 Houghton worked for the Royal Bank of Scotland Group, serving latterly as chief operating officer for RBS Insurance.  Between 2007 – 2012 he served as group chief finance officer at Aspen Insurance Holdings before joining RSA Insurance Group in 2012 as group chief financial officer.

From 2016 to 2017 he served as Interim CFO at Co-operative Insurance and held the same position at Hyperion Insurance Group throughout 2019. He is also an experienced non-executive director having served as chair of the audit committee at Standard Life Assurance Ltd between 2017–2018, and on the Phoenix Life Boards from 2018-2019.

Philip Howell, chief executive of Openwork, said: “We are delighted that Richard has elected to be our CFO for the long term. Since joining us in February, he has been instrumental in guiding the company and our partner firms successfully through the Covid-19 crisis. We will undoubtedly benefit from his extensive financial services as we take Openwork into a new era.”

Houghton added: “Since joining I have been immensely impressed with Openwork, which is an exciting business with a clear aspiration to grow and innovate.  I look forward to building on the work of the last four months to support its ongoing expansion and development.”