User:Jhulott/sandbox

Ashley Shepherd

Born Gloucester 6th March 1962

British

Occupation – Founder & Managing Director

Ashley Shepherd was born in Gloucester and is the Managing Director of over 50's online personal finance company ‘Over50choices’. Personal life

Shepherd was born in 1962 and has two brothers. His parents Pam and John also originated from Gloucester.

He was married in 1985 and has one daughter, Abby. He later remarried in 2010 to Claire Shepherd, who is now also his business partner.

Education

Shepherd was educated at Crypt Grammar School in Gloucester and then attended Gloucester College where he studied business and economics. In his 40's he gained a Marketing Diploma at Gloucester University.

Career

After a brief period working for the Area Health Authority, Shepherd started his financial services career at ^Cheltenham & Gloucester Building Society from 1980 to 1998. He was the company's youngest branch manager, taking charge of his first branch at the age of 23. After holding branch manager roles at Wotton under Edge, Weston Super Mare and Stroud, he then moved to the Head Office to take charge of their mortgage contact centre. He left Cheltenham & Gloucester in 1998 to take up a new role at the UK's first online bank ^Egg.

Responsible for setting up the mortgage division, Shepherd left Egg after 2 years to become Head of Marketing for the Stroud & Swindon Building Society; now part of the Coventry Building Society. Shepherd then moved to AXA Sun Life in 2004 as Head of Marketing, responsible for the direct marketing division with one of the largest direct marketing budgets in the UK. In 2011, he was promoted to Marketing Director of AXA Wealth.

Following a ^serious illness in 2010, Shepherd, no longer content with corporate life was inspired to set up his own business; thereby creating Over50choices.

Aware that other than Saga and Staysure there were few companies looking after his age group, Shepherd created Over50choices, helping like minded people over the age of 50 review, compare and arrange their personal finances.

Having experiencing a major illness, Shepherd also wanted to focus on the importance of later life planning for all; regardless of whether that was through older age or forced upon them through poor health.

Recognising the need to expand consumer awareness, Shepherd launched a new brand in 2015 Simply Funeral Plans with a view to providing a dedicated service for those seeking to remove the emotional and financial burden from their family by arranging and paying for their funeral in advance.

References 1. ^ Ashley Shepherd's full career history can be found here 2. ^ Cheltenham & Gloucester Building Society was purchased by Lloyds Banking Group in 1995 3. ^ At the end of 2009 Shepherd, was diagnosed with prostate cancer. He subsequently had a prostatectomy in March 2010 following medical advice from Prof Christopher Eden at the Hampshire Clinic that at the age of 48, this was his best opportunity for survival. Shepherd is still in remission despite having secondary cancer scares resulting in lymph nodes in his neck being removed and a section of rib; both to test for cancerous cells. 4. ^ Egg was part of the Prudential Bank plc and is now part of Yorkshire Building Society