Sovereign founders resign

Friday 24th August 2001

Ian Hendry

Chris Coon

By Graeme Hunt

The founders of Sovereign Assurance (now Sovereign) are stepping down as part of a management reshuffle in the ASB Bank subsidiary.

Managing director Ian Hendry (56) and executive deputy chairman Chris Coon (54) will retire at the end of the year. Hendry, a Scots businessman, and Coon, an English actuary, founded Sovereign Assurance in January 1989, building it into New Zealand's largest life office and non-bank home lender.

It was floated in 1998 and soon after acquired by ASB Bank, which itself became a wholly owned subsidiary of Australia's Commonwealth Bank.

Mr Hendry's replacement is Simon Swanson (43), managing director of Commonwealth Bank's financial services subsidiary in Fiji, Colonial.

He joined the Colonial group (now Commonwealth Banking Group) in 1980 and has also worked in Asia and the Middle East.

Mr Hendry, involved in the insurance industry in the UK, Hong Kong and New Zealand for 40 years, said it was the right time for a successor to take over now that the Colonial operations had been merged with Sovereign.

He said he would be taking a long holiday with his wife and had "limited interest" in board appointments.

Mr Coon will become a consultant to the group.

He said he was also looking forward to spending more time with his family.

Sovereign has a staff of 800, deals with 600,000 New Zealanders and has 3.4 billion of funds under management.

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