/Blackfinch Group Appoints Tom Nall as Head of Product
– Tom Nall brings over 25 years of experience in wealth management and product strategy to Blackfinch Group.
– His previous roles include significant contributions at Hargreaves Lansdown, Aviva, and SimplyBiz Group.
– Nall will lead product strategy and governance as Blackfinch embarks on its next phase of growth.
– The appointment aims to enhance Blackfinch’s workplace pension and financial wellbeing platform, Thrive.
Blackfinch Group has appointed Tom Nall as Head of Product, a strategic move aimed at shaping the Group’s product strategy, governance, and roadmap as it embarks on a new phase of growth.
Nall, who has more than 25 years of experience in senior proposition, product, and strategy roles, brings a wealth of knowledge from the UK’s wealth management, retirement, and workplace savings markets. His previous experience includes six years at Hargreaves Lansdown, along with senior positions at Aviva and SimplyBiz Group.
During his tenure at Hargreaves Lansdown, Nall led the integration of the investment proposition across various channels, significantly increasing flows into in-house funds. He was also instrumental in delivering the firm’s workplace default proposition, which saw a fund grow to approximately £2.5 billion within three years. His achievements include launching the UK’s first retail Long-Term Asset Funds on a direct-to-consumer platform and redesigning the Advice Centralised Investment Proposition, along with revamping the Venture Capital Trust service through a digital process.
In earlier roles, Nall was pivotal in setting up SimplyBiz Group’s workplace offering, which enabled advisers to broaden their services to clients. At Aviva, he oversaw the development of an integrated benefits technology solution that combined pensions and group protection benefits.
As the new Head of Product, Nall will be responsible for building and leading Blackfinch’s product function. He aims to establish the necessary frameworks and governance to support long-term growth, including continued enhancements to Thrive, Blackfinch’s workplace pension and financial wellbeing platform.
Nall will collaborate closely with the Executive Leadership Team to ensure alignment of product strategy, development, and delivery across the Group.
Richard Cook, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Blackfinch Group, commented on the appointment: “Tom’s appointment reflects our ambition for Blackfinch’s next phase of growth. He has extensive experience of developing investment and workplace propositions and turning ambitious ideas into products that work for advisers and their clients. His experience across regulated investment products, workplace propositions, and digital transformation will help us develop our product capability as Thrive scales and our wider portfolio continues to grow. Most importantly, he shares our focus on building products around the needs of the advisers, partners, and clients we serve.”
Nall expressed his enthusiasm about joining Blackfinch: “Blackfinch has built something genuinely distinctive. There’s real breadth across the Group, underpinned by a clear investment philosophy and a strong commitment to working in partnership with advisers. That combination, alongside the ambition for the business, is what attracted me to the role. I’m looking forward to building on those strong foundations and applying what I’ve learned across investment platforms, workplace propositions, and benefits tech. The focus will be on developing products that are straightforward, relevant, and genuinely useful to advisers, partners, and their clients.”
As Blackfinch continues to expand in its investment, workplace, property, and energy sectors, Nall’s leadership is expected to significantly strengthen the Group’s product development capabilities, ensuring a disciplined approach that fosters sustainable commercial growth and delivers long-term value for advisers and their clients.
Blackfinch Group, an award-winning investment specialist, has over 150 full-time employees and a history spanning 30 years, offering a range of tax-efficient investment solutions, managed portfolio services, early-stage investing, property financing, and energy infrastructure investing. The Group prides itself on adapting to customer needs, inspired by the principles of evolution as envisioned by Charles Darwin.
