The C-tech interviews: Meet the CIO of People’s Partnership
Last year, a chance phone call with InX led Nigel Rodgers to a fantastic opportunity as CIO of People’s Partnership – and he hasn’t looked back. In the latest in our series of interviews with C-tech leaders, Nigel tells us about his role, his experience with InX and his advice for other tech leaders contemplating a senior move.
Tell us a little about yourself?
I started my career as a finance graduate trainee with Arcadia Group. This provided a structured opportunity to work across many functions within the business, gaining understanding of how the different functions operate together, whilst building financial understanding and commercial acumen.
Post completion of the scheme, I joined the international function providing financial analysis to the franchise operations globally. This helped me learn the nuances and challenges of operating across the globe. I moved to Legal & General in 2003 and across the next 10 years I worked extensively across the individual (retail) savings business. During this time I experienced key areas such as finance, project management, business performance, strategy, product operations and group shared services.
In 2013 I decided to move to one of the subsidiaries within the group called Suffolk Life, in the capacity of IT director.
This was my first significant IT role, responsible for IT and change for the organisation and importantly was my first experience of being a company director and regulated individual. I operated as IT director for two years, during which time I also took on responsibility for managing the commercial property function, which managed c3,500 commercial properties on behalf of the SIPP investors.
Around 2015 L&G merged Suffolk Life together with Cofunds and LGFS and I became director of change and commercial property for the combined businesses. This was my first experience of managing large geographically disperse teams. In the latter stages of 2016, the L&G group decided to divest its retail savings businesses and I opted to rejoin Suffolk Life as CIO. Suffolk Life was acquired by Curtis Banks in 2016. This was my departure from the L&G Group as I took on the role of group CIO for the Curtis Banks Group.
I spent six years in this role and gained some great experiences including multiple acquisitions, diversification in the form of a fintech acquisition and experience of operating in an AIM-listed environment. I moved from Curtis Banks to People’s Partnership in 2022.
You recently became the CIO of People’s Partnership. What triggered you to consider a move?
The opportunity actually came about through a chance call with a member of the InX team. They took the time to listen to my experience and future career preferences and passed my name onto Natalie. We had a brief conversation about the opportunity before I was put forward. At the time, People’s Partnership were quite advanced in their search, so there was a strong chance that I wouldn’t be considered. Fortunately, I was invited to an initial interview and the rest, as they say, is history.
What was your experience of working with InX?
My experience of working with InX was incredibly positive. InX took the time to listen to me, understand my experience and my future career preferences and with this information matched me to the opportunity at People’s Partnership. Given the advanced stages of the search, it would have been easy for Natalie not to put me forward. I’m so glad she did!
How did you approach your first few months in your role?
People’s Partnership, which provides workplace pensions to 6.4 million people across the UK, is very different to my previous experiences in listed organisations. It is structured without shareholders - we call it ‘profit for people,’ which means that every penny of surplus generated is reinvested back into the business to benefit our members, helping them build financial foundations for life.
As you would expect, the organisation is as commercially focused as any that I have worked in across my career but culturally there is a dedication to customers and customer outcomes that is genuinely impressive. I knew this was the case from the research that I did during the search process so I knew that I would need to spend time to learn and adjust to the new role and organisational culture. I did a lot of listening and observing in my first few months as I worked out leadership and functional capabilities, individual and team personalities as well as the organisation’s culture.
What advice would you give others contemplating a move, or starting a new senior role?
An organisation’s culture and default behaviours, as evidenced by its people, including those who you meet during the application process, are arguably the most important indication of how you will ‘fit’ in the role. Trust your instinct: if it feels wrong, it’s probably wrong and vice versa. The interview process at People’s Partnership involved two interviews, eight hours of testing and a discussion with the executive coach who supports our executive leadership team. My conclusion? This is an organisation that takes senior recruitment, cultural fit and executive development seriously; I knew it was an organisation I wanted to join!
What surprised you the most during your journey from one business to another?
What surprised me most was what I learnt about myself. I was nicely surprised by People’s Partnership and how strongly its mission and purpose resonated with me. We are an organisation with a rich heritage – we were set up by unions in 1942 to provide holiday stamps to construction workers. Today, we are committed to using our size and scale to benefit society. Examples of this include our charitable trust as well as the great work we do with our local charities, not to mention national partnerships, including our sponsorship of the National Junior Athletics Championships, which is a celebration of young, disabled athletes. There is a strong commitment to environmental and social responsibility throughout the business.
What's on your radar currently (tech, business, innovation, etc)?
People’s Partnership has an ambitious growth and transformation agenda including repositioning as a leading workplace pension provider, which will include us launching a number of exciting member-facing digital tools, such as a new set of online retirement planning tools and a member app.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you would like to find a future C-tech leader for your business, or you’re a tech or digital leader who’s looking for their next step, please contact one of the InX technology team, here.