Executive Leadership Team

Matt Benchener

Chief Executive Officer

Appointed to the Executive Leadership Team:
July 2026

Having previously served as Managing Director and Head of Vanguard Personal Investor in the United States, he brings extensive experience across retail investing and digital transformation, alongside a strong track record in driving client growth and developing innovative financial products. Having moved from the US to Bristol, he is passionate about helping Britain build wealth, with confidence.

Matt also served on the Board of SIFMA, a leading trade association for broker-dealers, investment banks and asset managers focused on building effective and resilient capital markets.

He earned his BA from Johns Hopkins University and MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Declan Hourican

Chief Financial Officer

Appointed to the Executive Leadership Team:
November 2025

Declan has worked in financial services for the past two decades and brings significant strategic, financial and commercial experience, in both publicly listed and private financial services companies. He has led businesses through transformation programmes and overseen significant periods of growth.

Declan has previously held CFO roles at TSB Bank and Tesco Bank, as well as having worked in a number of senior finance roles at RBS, including in restructuring, non-core, retail banking and insurance.

He is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and a graduate of University College Dublin and the Michael Smurfit Graduate School of Business.

David Daw

Chief Internal Auditor

Appointed to the Executive Leadership Team:
August 2021

David started his career qualifying as a Chartered Accountant with EY in Bristol. After some time working in Vancouver, Canada with EY he has built up 25 years of Internal Audit experience mainly across the Financial Services industry. Prior to joining HL in 2017 he held Head of Audit roles at BAE Systems, AXA Life, Friends Life and TSB. David’s experience prior to HL includes providing assurance in organisations going through a variety of significant change including mergers, de-mergers, stock market listing, acquisitions and numerous large scale organisational and technology transformation programmes. As part of this he has specialised in building and leading high performing audit teams.

David and his team provide independent assurance to the Board over the effectiveness of HL’s internal controls and risk management practices. To facilitate this, they hold no operational or decision making responsibilities and David reports directly to the Chair of the Audit Committee with an internal reporting line to the CEO.

David is also Independent Chair of the Joint Audit Committee for Avon and Somerset Police.

Since August 2025, David has held the role of Acting Chief Risk Officer.

Gary Logan

Chief Operating Officer

Appointed to the Executive Leadership Team:
June 2024

Gary started his career as a Chartered Accountant with Ernst & Young in the nineties, before moving into the Asset Management industry, where he held roles across front, middle and back office. He’s also a CFA Charter holder. He became a Consulting Partner at EY leading their Wealth & Asset Management Transformation offering in the UK, specialising in leading large scale global transformation programmes for asset managers, wealth managers, asset servicers and alternative providers.

Doug Abbott

Chief Product Officer

Appointed to the Executive Leadership Team:
December 2025

Doug Abbott is responsible for ensuring clients can access a high-quality range of financial products across the platform, spanning funds, retirement solutions, ETFs, and innovation across public and private markets. Doug is also directly responsible for HL Fund Managers, HL Workplace, our partnerships team and platform investments.

He is passionate about improving financial outcomes across the UK, with a strong belief in the opportunity to help more people benefit from saving and investing, supported by the right products and guidance.

Doug joined from Vanguard, where he was Head of the UK Client Group, leading relationships with UK clients across ETFs, mutual funds, and model portfolios. Prior to this, he spent 15 years at Schroders, where he started on the graduate scheme and went on to hold a number of senior roles, including Head of UK Wealth, Country Head of South Africa, and Head of UK Investment Trust Sales.

Emma Wall

Chief Investment Strategist

Appointed to the Executive Leadership Team:
September 2025

As Chief Investment Strategist, Emma is responsible for HL’s investment philosophy and our analysis on funds, shares, ETFs and investments trusts, as well as research on pensions and personal finance, group-wide strategic asset allocation and ESG policies and processes. Emma is also HL’s primary external advocate, sharing investment expertise with our clients, the media and the market and chairs the Distribution Investment Oversight Committee.

Before her appointment to the Executive Leadership Team, Emma has held various roles at HL since joining in 2019, including leading the fund research team, running our Active Savings cash platform, and heading up platform investments, where she determined the best products to distribute to our clients.

Prior to HL, she held roles at data and analysis company Morningstar, latterly in Hong Kong from where she ran teams in India, the UK, Canada and Australia, gaining a global perspective on markets, investors and regulation.

Outside of her role at HL, Emma chairs the ACT Stewardship Council and is a director of Bristol Future Talent Partnership, a Bristol-based youth charity.

Darren Worth

Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer

Appointed to the Executive Leadership Team:
August 2025

Darren joined the business in 2023 and is now Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer, having previously led HL’s commercial finance team and, more recently, held the position of Interim Chief Financial Officer.

Darren has extensive strategic and financial leadership experience across client-focused businesses in the retail, data, and financial services sectors. Prior to HL, he worked in a number of senior strategy and finance roles at Screwfix, including as Director of Commercial Finance and Strategy and Director of Operational Finance, as well as in global businesses, including Experian and BAE Systems, in senior Group Finance, Commercial and M&A positions.

A qualified management accountant, Darren combines deep technical expertise with a commercial mindset.

Simon Belsham

Chief Client Officer

Appointed to the Executive Leadership Team:
August 2025

Simon has extensive experience leading digital platform businesses and online retail platforms grounded in customer insights. In both the UK and the US, he has held senior roles at Equinox, Walmart, Ocado and Tesco, where he led the online business as Managing Director.

Through his background in digital retail platforms, Simon is expert in designing truly consumer-centric experiences and services to deliver what people need.

Simon received his MBA from Havard Business School in 2007.

Lisa Hillier

Chief People Officer

Appointed to the Executive Leadership Team:
January 2026

Lisa is a people and culture leader with deep experience enabling high-growth, consumer-focused businesses scale through transformation. She specialises in building high-performing cultures, strengthening leadership capability and focusing on sustainable growth through periods of change and evolution.

Before joining HL, Lisa has held various Chief People Officer roles, building broad experience across digital, technology and consumer facing organisations, including Trainline, Just Eat and Betfair. She has also held senior people leadership roles at Aviva and Ofcom.

Her experience spans organisational design, leadership development, M&A, talent strategy, reward and employee experience and she holds a strong belief that culture and performance go hand in hand.

Angela Yotov

Chief Legal Officer and Company Secretary

Appointed to the Executive Leadership Team:
May 2026

Angela has deep expertise in legal, governance and regulatory matters across the financial services sector, spanning both public and private organisations. Prior to joining the HL team, she held Group Executive roles at Direct Line Group, Close Brothers and RateSetter where she helped navigate significant periods of transformation.

A qualified solicitor and a graduate of Oxford University, Angela also brings valuable non-executive experience, having served on the board of Felix (formerly FareShare), the UK's largest food redistribution charity since 2019.