Executive Directors

John Nichols (Chief Executive) After an early career in the RAF, John entered the leisure industry with the Rank Organisation where he held several senior executive positions. John joined H&T as Managing Director in 1997 and subsequently became Chief Executive. He has been instrumental in developing and implementing the business strategy and delivering consistent growth in revenues and profitability. He has also been instrumental in the initiative to obtain the ISO9001 and Investors in People accreditations. He is currently President of the National Pawnbrokers’ Association, a position he has held since
October 2004.



Alex has spent his career in a variety of financial management and corporate finance roles, gaining experience within both public and private markets and across banking and industry and commerce. He previously worked in Macquarie’s private equity division where he served a number of roles for various portfolio companies, including Chief Financial Officer and Board director. Prior to this he worked for Mapeley plc as Head of Financial Engineering, playing a major role in both the refinancing and flotation of the business. Early in his career he was an equity analyst at ING Barings and trained at PricewaterhouseCoopers where he gained his Chartered Accountant status. Alex joined H&T in
February 2009.



A Chartered Accountant who trained at KPMG, Stephen has pursued a variety of management roles in the alternative credit sector. Prior to joining H&T, Stephen worked for The Money Shop (part of Dollar Financial, Inc.) where he was responsible for new product development introducing, amongst others, foreign exchange, unsecured loans and loans brokerage. Stephen joined H&T in March 2005 as Commercial Director where he has launched the pre-paid debit card and utilised his expertise in credit management and debt collection. He is responsible both for the project management and implementation of new product initiatives and for origination and execution of new store acquisitions.

Non-Executive Directors



Peter McNamara spent the majority of his career with Lloyds Bank plc, as chief manager for strategic planning, mergers and acquisitions, and then as the managing director of Personal Banking. He subsequently served as group managing director of the Alliance & Leicester plc and chief executive of Wesleyan Assurance Society, a mutual life insurance business. In 2002 he left to become chairman and subsequently executive chairman of Moneybox plc, the leading ATM deployer operating in the UK, Germany and the Netherlands, which he led to flotation on AIM. He has been Chairman of H&T since October 2008.


Malcolm Berryman is currently a Non-Executive Director at Lincoln Assurance and Scottish Friendly Assurance. He has recently been helping LECG advise the Policyholder Advocate on the Norwich Union reattribution and separately, he has been advisor to the Association of Mutual Insurers. Between 1990 and 2005, he was Chief Executive of two Insurers, Liverpool Victoria and Crown Financial Management. He qualified as an Actuary in 1983.



Andrew Brown, a Chartered Accountant, has wide ranging experience of the financial services sector, including executive positions with Sterling Guarantee Trust and Sedgwick Group. He was finance director and subsequently joint chief executive of Gartmore Investment Management plc. He has been a board member or chairman of a number of listed and unlisted companies and is presently a non-executive director of Oval Limited, Framlington Income & Capital Trust PLC and Thames River Capital (UK) Limited.

Company Secretary

Alex Maby
E:amm@harveythompson.co.uk