Executive Directors

Mark Abbott

Executive Chairman

A City and Investment Banking Specialist, who from 1985 to 1990 held various investment banking positions within UBS and Baring Bros.

From 1990 to 1994, Mark was the Group Treasurer and also Director of Corporate Finance at Bristol and West Building Society, being instrumental in the sale of the business to the Bank of Ireland.

He became a partner in the successful investment fund business Morgan West in 1995 before becoming the founding shareholder and Chief Executive of Future Mortgages Limited, a specialist mortgage lender, in 1996. The company was then sold to Citigroup in 2001 and Mark continued to reign until 2003 when The Beacon Group was formed.

To date, Mark Abbott is Executive Chairman for The Beacon Group.

He's also a Non Executive Director and shareholder at Pepper Home Loans (Australia), a specialist mortgage lender.

Andrew Townsend

Group Managing Director

A Fellow Chartered Accountant, specialising in business strategy, with over twenty years experience in the financial services sector. He started his career with Axa Equity & Law.

Joining at it's inception in 1986 – 1998, Andrew built the foundations of his career at HMC, a specialist mortgage lender. He joined as Chief Accountant, and then went on to become Finance Director and finally Acting Managing Director. Andrew played a pivotal role in the sale of HMC to Abbey National in 1994.

During 1994 to 2000, Andrew was involved in many Abbey National Group business projects.

From 1999 – 2000 he was also the Finance Director of First National Consumer Finance, (acquired by Abbey National in 1995) a major secured and unsecured consumer finance business.

From 2000 until 2004, Andrew was the Finance Director of Southern Pacific Mortgages Limited, a specialist mortgage lender which was sold to Lehman Brothers in September 2002.

In 2004, Andrew joined forces with Mark Abbott and Simon Goldthorpe to form The Beacon Group. He is now Group Managing Director for The Beacon Group.