• Emma Furlonger appointed Interim Managing Director for Workplace and Retail Intermediary

Gail Izat has been appointed to the newly created position of Chief Operating Officer (COO) for Standard Life’s Pensions & Savings business. In the role Gail will be responsible for leading the delivery of the unit’s strategy, transformation, integration and risk activity. The role of COO will be particularly important given Standard Life’s ambitious growth plans for the P&S business, following the acquisition of Aegon UK.

Pensions & Savings is one of the two key business units within Standard Life and supports customers saving through their employer, with the help of a financial adviser or on their own through its Workplace, Retail Intermediary and Retail Direct trading channels respectively. Each of these markets is structurally growing and a strategic priority for Standard Life and, today, Pensions & Savings manages c.£212bn of assets on behalf of its customers.

Gail has been Managing Director for Workplace since 2019 and more recently took on responsibility for the Retail Intermediary channel. Emma Furlonger will take up this role on an interim basis, until a formal recruitment process has completed. Emma has worked closely with Gail since 2021 most recently as Workplace Trading Director.

Emma’s appointment ensures continuity of leadership for the two business areas, both of which have significant momentum. In 2025, Standard Life’s Workplace business recorded net inflows of £5.3bn and added nearly 250,000 new customers. In recent years there has been a renewed emphasis on the Retail Intermediary channel where Standard Life has a number of strengths including its off platform SIPP, bond range, smoothed fund propositions and annuity offer.

Commenting on the appointments, Angela Byrne, CEO of Pensions & Savings at Standard Life said: “These appointments are a recognition of the impact that both Gail and Emma have made at Standard Life. Under Gail’s leadership Standard Life has become a top three player in Workplace and has set out a clear direction for our Retail Intermediary offer. In her new role she will look more broadly at how we deliver the P&S strategy for our 12 million customers. Emma is ideally placed to step into Gail’s shoes given how closely they’ve worked together over the last five years. We have a clear ambition to consolidate our leading position in the Workplace market and become a top five player in Retail – these appointments will be central to those goals.”

Gail Izat, Chief Operating Officer of Pensions & Savings at Standard Life said: “My focus has always been on delivering good customer outcomes, and I’m excited to take that mindset into this new COO role as we continue to build across Pensions & Savings. I’m also thrilled for Emma as she’s been a key part of the progress we’ve made and her appointment underlines how committed we are to developing and backing talent across the business.”

Emma Furlonger, Interim Managing Director for Standard Life Workplace and Retail Intermediary said: “I’m really excited to step into this role and to build on the brilliant foundations and strong momentum already in place. I’ve worked closely with Gail for several years, so there’s a great sense of continuity and my focus will be on keeping the bar high for customers and advisers as we continue to strengthen what we deliver across Workplace and Retail Intermediary.”

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About Standard Life

  • Standard Life is a retirement specialist focused entirely on retirement saving and income.
  • We are proud to manage around c£317bn in assets on behalf of our 12 million customers, and we champion the belief that everyone's journey to and through retirement can be better. 
  • With our focus entirely on retirement savings and income we want to be the business that people trust to guide their retirement journey, helping our customers achieve better outcomes and greater financial security in later life. 
  • As a FTSE 100-listed group we are using our size, expertise and influence to shape the world our customers will retire into, and are committed to helping three million customers by 2035, take action towards a better retirement. 
  • Standard Life is a responsible investor with a clear commitment to supporting a more sustainable future. The company has achieved its net zero goal across its emissions for 2025 and is working towards net zero investment portfolios by 2050 or sooner.
  • Standard Life is recognised as a leading employer, with long-standing accreditation as a Living Wage Employer, Living Pension Employer and Carer Positive Exemplary Employer and in 2025 became one of Britain’s Most Admired Companies in 2025.

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