Gibson has over 25 years’ experience in financial services and had been acting on an interim basis at the protection challenger for the last 12 months.

Prior to Guardian, Jeremy was chief financial officer and director of Sanlam UK and held the role of non-executive director of Nucleus Financial.

Before that, he spent over 7 years with Macquarie Bank in Sydney and the UK in their banking and financial services division.

Initially, Gibson began his career as a chartered accountant with Ernst and Young in South Africa.

Katya MacLean, chief executive of Guardian, said: “I’m delighted to appoint Jeremy as CFO on a permanent basis, to complete our new executive committee.

“He’s well known to the team, having successfully acted as interim for the past year, and has played a key role in the strong growth of the business during 2020.

“We’re looking forward to building on that success during 2021, to bring our awardwinning protection to more families that need it.”