Legal & General has announced two appointments to its Group Management Committee, further strengthening its leadership team.

Laura Mason has been appointed as chief executive  of L&G’s retail division. She will take post in December, succeeding Bernie Hickman who, after 26-year tenure, will leave L&G to focus on new opportunities at the end of the year.

Mason is currently CEO of L&G’s Private Markets business. She brings Group-wide experience and an in-depth knowledge of L&G, having been part of the founding team of its alternative assets business, and led its institutional retirement division.

Before joining L&G, she spent eight years at Towers Watson as a consultant to major UK life insurers.

Taking a new role on the group management committee, Katie Worgan will join the business in the first quarter of 2025 as group chief operating Officer.

Worgan, currently managing director and chief operating officer of consumer relationships at Lloyds Banking Group, will lead the Group’s operations, technology, digital and data, procurement, and property and workplace strategies, working across functions and divisions.

Worgan brings considerable operational and international leadership experience across retail financial services and asset management. In her current role, she leads the strategic development of consumer relationships alongside all complex customer servicing and non-customer facing operations.

Prior to this, she spent more than two decades at HSBC, in international leadership roles across private banking, wealth, retail banking, strategy and general management.

Commenting on the appointments L&G chief executive António Simões (also pictured) said: “We are making rapid progress on our vision for a growing, simpler, better-connected business. Today’s leadership appointments reflect our intention to continue to move at pace to implement our strategy.