Mark Wood

Gregory Mark Wood CBE (born 1953 in County Durham) has been at the helm of several financial services and technology start-ups, both in the UK and New York City. Career Wood began his career with the accountancy firm Price Waterhouse (PwC). He also held posts in Commercial Union, MAI plc, British & Commonwealth, and Barclays. After running the AA's insurance arm for three years, Wood was made chief executive of Axa Equity & Law. Buying into Sun Life put him in charge of a FTSE 100 company which subsequently bought Guardian Royal Exchange and set about integrating the group. In 2001, Wood moved from Axa to join Prudential plc and became its UK and European Chief Executive. In 2006, Wood's work in re-establishing Prudential plc as a leader in the UK insurance market became the subject of a case study by the International Institute for Management Development. In 2005 he founded and became chief executive of Paternoster; a regulated insurance company that takes on the risks associated with companies’ final salary/defined benefit pension schemes. The company received backing of £500 million, led by Deutsche Bank. In 2009, Wood became the deputy chairman.