Mark Weinberg

For the Australian judge, see Mark Weinberg (judge).

Sir Mark Aubrey Weinberg (born 9 August 1931) is a South African-born British financier.

Early life and education

Weinberg was born in South Africa and educated at King Edward VII School in Johannesburg. He received degrees in Commerce and Law and practised as a barrister. He later received his Master of Laws at the London School of Economics, specialising in Company Law and wrote the book Takeovers and Mergers whilst at the London School of Economics.

Financial services career

In 1961 he founded Abbey Life Assurance Company in London, which was one of the first companies to develop unit-linked assurance and where he formed one of the UK’s first retail property funds.

In 1971 he went on to found Hambro Life Assurance, subsequently called Allied Dunbar, where he was managing director until 1983 (it is now part of Zurich Financial Services), and grew the corporation to become the largest unit-linked life assurance company in the UK, operating successfully in the insurance broker market as well as building up a large sales force. There he formed the first retail managed fund and originated the concept of the variable premium whole life policy.

Today,he is now the President of St. James's Place, which he co-founded with Mike Wilson and Lord Rothschild (as J Rothschild Assurance) in 1991. He is also Chairman of the investment committee at St.James's Place.

In 2006, he became the Executive Chairman of Synergy Insurance Services, an innovative corporate insurance company.

Additionally, he is the Chairman of the Pension Insurance Corporation, a company set up in 2005 to provide insurance solutions for pension scheme management, in particular for defined benefit corporate pension schemes.

Other activities

He was Deputy Chairman of the principal UK regulatory body, the Securities and Investment Board, from its inception in 1985 until 1990, having been an adviser on insurance affairs to the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry.

He is also the author of Weinberg and Blank on Take-overs and Mergers (1962), the standard legal text-book on the subject, now in its fifth edition (1989). which he wrote with Victor Blank.

He was the co-founder of the Per Cent Club, a grouping of top companies committed to increasing companies’ charitable and community contributions, and Deputy Chairman of Business in the Community.

From 1983 to 1991 he was the Hon. Treasurer of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and from 1985 to 1992 was a Trustee of the Tate Gallery.

Lastly, he is an Hon. Bencher of Gray's Inn and is a Governor of the London School of Economics.

Family

He is married to former Bond Girl, hotelier and designer Anouska Hempel, his second wife, and has 4 children. He lived at Cole Park near Malmesbury in Wiltshire.