Meet The Team

John Hitchcock, Managing Director – Nottingham

John is a Fellow of the Chartered Insurance Institute and has over 20 years experience within the financial services sector. He holds a degree in Banking, Insurance and Risk Management as well as the Certificate in Financial Planning. For the 10 years prior to joining Towergate Financial, John was the Operations Director for a large composite broker that was subsequently acquired by Towergate.

John describes the business as follows: 'We have a strong, client focussed team of professional people keen to deliver high standards of service and advice. Our aim is always to ensure that those high standards are consistently delivered to all our customers from those with straightforward advice needs right through to our national and international corporate clients with sophisticated financial planning requirements'.

David Smith, Managing Director – Grantham

David has over 20 years experience in financial services and has been involved in the IFA sector throughout that time in a variety of management and client-facing roles. David was previously a Partner of Russell Plaice & Partners, a long-standing firm of independent financial advisers based in Grantham, Lincolnshire which was acquired by Towergate Financial in 2008.

Mitch Hopkinson, Technical Director

Mitch has worked for some of the biggest names in the financial services industry, including American Express, Midland HSBC and Barclays Life. He created Real Independent Financial Advice Limited before selling the business to Towergate Financial to exploit economies of scale.

Mitch leads our corporate team in the provision of advice from local firms through to leading national and international business clients and has implemented advice structures on some industry leading projects.

Amongst high net-worth clients, he has a reputation for creating sophisticated financial solutions and is recognised as having particular expertise in pension planning, inheritance tax and VCTs to mitigate tax liabilities.

Andy Hunt, Training and Compliance Officer

Andy has worked in the Financial Services sector since 1987. During that time he has built up considerable experience in corporate work, including the compliance oversight of some national projects as well as the day to day responsibility for making sure that we adhere to the Treating Customers Fairly initiative within the division. As part of this initiative, Andy oversees the development of our financial advisers and agrees training plans with each of them to ensure ongoing development.

He holds high level qualifications in financial planning and is the Company's appointed Pension Transfer Specialist and Money Laundering Reporting Officer. Andy is involved at the earliest stages on our project work to make sure that we build in robust compliance structures from the outset.

Gareth Hope, Technical and Development Manager

Having graduated from the University of Nottingham with an MEng in Electronic Engineering, Gareth began his career in Financial Services in a Paraplanning capacity assisting our advisers in delivering the highest service and support to Towergate Financial clients.

During his time within financial services, Gareth has built up a wealth of knowledge and uses this to develop and implement best practice across the business. Gareth also oversees the technical and logistical aspects of our project work, ensuring that our projects are delivered on time and within agreed budgets by liaising between the client and our team.

Gareth oversees the training and development of our support team as many of them progress with company sponsored qualifications to Diploma level and beyond.

Colin Hall, Director of Sales - Nottingham

Colin has worked in financial services since 1991 with over 10 years experience in sales management. He has been with the company for 5 years and was attracted to Towergate Financial because of its forward thinking philosophy after 15 years with a national tied sales force.

Colin is responsible for the day to day relationship with some of our biggest corporate partners. In doing so he is proactive in ensuring that that our team of over 20 advisers consistently deliver the highest quality advice and service. Central to Colin's role is the ongoing training and development of the team in conjunction with our Compliance Officer.

He is a fully authorised financial adviser and still oversees the finances of clients who have dealt with Colin for over 15 years. He has experience of leading a large team of advisers and works closely with the other members of the management team to ensure that all parts of the Towergate strategic plan are achieved.