Closed life and pension fund consolidator Phoenix Group Holdings plc, owner of the “old” Standard Life Assurance, announced the appointment of Anna Franekova to drive mergers and acquisitions in UK heritage book consolidation as its corporate development director, effective March 1, 2022.

Franekova joins Phoenix from JPMorgan Chase where she was a managing director in its investment banking division.

She brings over 15 years of experience in the insurance sector across mergers and acquisitions, capital markets transactions, balance sheet management and other strategic leadership roles.

Phoenix is the UK’s largest long-term savings and retirement business, with £300 billion of assets under administration and 13 million customers.

“Anna will report directly to Andy Briggs, group CEO, and serve as a member of Phoenix Group’s executive committee,” said Phoenix.

“In this new role, Anna will be responsible for driving and overseeing Phoenix Group’s corporate activity, including identifying and delivering growth opportunities through M&A.

“This executive committee position has been created to reflect the group’s ambition to continue its inorganic growth strategy and build on its position as the market leader in heritage M&A and integration.”

Phoenix Group CEO Andy Briggs said: “We are delighted Anna will be joining us, who brings a breadth of capital markets, advisory and leadership experience that will support us in continuing to achieve progress against our strategic priorities.

“With an estimated market size of £480 billion, there is a huge opportunity for further UK heritage book consolidation.

“With Anna’s experience in M&A we will continue to build on our position as the market leader in the sector.”