Our team

George Higginson, Executive Chairman

George Higginson became Chairman of Mint following Intrinsic’s acquisition of the network in early 2008. His experience of all aspects of financial services means he is well-placed to help take Mint forward.

George studied Industrial Management at the University of Ulster and joined Zurich in 1992. He had a number of roles during his time at Zurich, but it was his first position that gave him his invaluable insight into sales.

In the early 1990s George helped to build his practice into the number one sales team for Allied Dunbar in the UK – a title retained for several years. Building on this success he moved into sales management, where he had various roles as a director of sales before becoming National Operations Director for Zurich in 2000.

George was one of the founders of Intrinsic Financial Services in 2005 and remains the Operations Director for the multi-tie side of the business. More recently, George has been fully engaged with the Financial Services Authority as a network representative on the Retail Distribution Review.

Always at the heart of George’s role is a drive to make Mint the place where it’s easy for advisers to do business.

Stephen Atwell, Sales Operations Director

Stephen began his career in financial services in 1980 as a representative of Pearl Assurance. Having made the decision to progress into Sales Management in 1991, within 18 months his team had achieved a position as one of the top ten teams within the most successful division in the company.

By 2000 Stephen had set up his own Independent Financial Adviser business, and to this day still finds time to offer independent advice to his existing clients.

After many successful years in both management and as an IFA, Stephen was promoted to the board of directors of Mint Financial Services in September 2006. His main aim is to offer advisers who wish to work within a “whole of market” environment the opportunity to benefit from a competitive and supportive structure.

Ken Ashdown, Finance Director

Ken brings a huge amount of experience in finance, across a wide range of industries, to his role as Finance Director with Mint.

A Chartered Accountant from London, Ken qualified in the early eighties with Ernst and Whinney (now Ernst and Young) and by the age of 29 achieved his first Finance Director role. His career progressed to include being Finance Director of Dekkertoys, Hayters and James Robertson and Sons, as well as being involved in Private Equity funded projects and independent owner-managed businesses.

Throughout his career, Ken has been successful in growing profitability, merging / relocating businesses as well as creating business plans / raising finance and leading acquisition teams.

Since December 2004, Ken has been the Business and Finance consultant to Mint. His strong IT and analysis skills enable Mint to react quickly to underlying movements and trends.