The Insurance Institute of Newcastle Upon Tyne
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President's Message

On Monday 29th April 2025, The Insurance Institute of Newcastle upon Tyne held its AGM for 2025/26. I am delighted to announce I was re-elected as President for another year along with Rachel Jefferson as Deputy President. 

I would like to say a huge thank you for everyone on council and the YPG for their continued efforts. We are a volunteer led council comprised of General Insurance & Financial Services professionals and our mandate is simple, to add value to the CII & PFS members of the North East.

In terms of theme, I would like to continue the theme of ‘Progression’. I love the saying ‘Progression, not perfection.’ Every single one of us are from different backgrounds, have done different things and have different levels of experiences, both personally and professionally. However, we are all on the same path, whereby we are trying to progress in some way. It never ends!! 

I’m delighted to announce my chosen charity for 2025/26 is Feeding Families

I had the pleasure of visiting their premises this week and met with Founder & CEO Juliet Sanders and Income Generation Lead Hazel Ditchburn MCIOF (Cert).

Listening to Juliet’s story of how she set up the charity was truly inspiring and I really enjoyed getting to know more about what great work they do. Hazel and I discussed some ideas regarding fundraising for the next year. Feeding Families is a charity based in North East England that offers support, hope and security to those experiencing food poverty. 

Here is a link to their website: https://feedingfamilies.org.uk/ 

As a father of two young children I was really affected seeing the statistics of the food poverty figures for children, absolutely heart breaking.

All of our fundraising efforts this year will go to Feeding Families and myself along with members of the council will also be doing some volunteering for this amazing charity.

Finally thank you to Mark Parkinson and all of the team at Azets Wealth Management for their continued support.

Lets get to it!!