The Senior Management Team
John Taplin - Managing Director, Co-owner and Founder, SMF3 - John runs Open day to day and is responsible for Opens ongoing growth and development, John is the driving force behind Open and particularly the technology that makes Open so great. He ensures Open delivers on its promises and always will. John is focused on Open being the best, not the biggest.
Andrew Smith - Compliance Director, SMF16 - Having held senior leadership roles within the UK Financial Services industry for more than 25 years, Andrew has built a significant reputation devising highly successful business change strategies that drive commercial growth, compliance and operational improvement. As an executive director and FCA regulation Subject Matter Expert, he provides objective challenge to both executive and non-executive committee Boards in the strategic planning and implementation of long-term initiatives that deliver growth and change across new markets. Creating clear strategy to enable businesses to achieve their objectives is one of his greatest strengths. He has worked extensively with financial services organisations on devising effective Board and governance frameworks that can be implemented efficiently and easily, achieving buy-in and delivering outstanding financial results.
Sue Witton - Head of Operations & Compliance - Sue is an experienced Risk and Compliance Manager and has led teams of staff throughout her career. Fully qualified in conduct and credit risk in operational and second-line roles, Sue is customer focussed, applying FCA regulation and industry best practise to drive good customer outcomes. Her regulatory knowledge of the FCA Handbook is sound. Sue is a strong communicator, with proven stakeholder engagement at all levels, delivering results on operational activities and projects. Motivated by new challenges and driving change, Sue is committed to personal and continuous professional development.
David Bastock - Co-owner & Founder, 7th Generation Independent Funeral Director - David started the conversation that led to the launch of Open back in 2003. There wasn’t a funeral plan available that he felt gave him the comfort to offer to his clients. That’s how Open started and we maintain those same values and benefits that we always have done. David runs his funeral business day to day but is always on hand to share his vast knowledge and experience with us, as well as his firm being an IAR of Open.
The Administration Team
Madeleine Bendall – Team Leader - Madeleine has joined us to manage and run the growing administration team, she has a number of years’ experience in administrative team management and has already settled into the fluidity and efficiency of the team as well as understanding the Open philosophy of customer service.
Neve Wiseman, Saffina Stratton & George Bayston - Plan Administrators - Our administration team members working under Madeleine ensure that the enquiries and Plan Arranger appointments are handled and scheduled correctly, and that all the necessary plan administration and paperwork are sent out correctly and promptly. We are currently recruiting one more person for this team (Mar 2025).
Catherine Gurney – Internal Account & Oversight Support Manager - Catherine works both with Sue and Amanda to be the first point of contact for the majority of our IAR Funeral Directors ensuring that they’re kept informed about any changes, training updates and general behaviours as well as working with Kerris to support POS, brochure needs and marketing oversight and activity. She also oversees much of the content available to our IARs on the secure Open platform.
IAR Account Management
Amanda Hodson - Key Account Manager - Amanda has many years experience in the funeral plan sector having worked for another national provider for 7 years before joining Open in 2020. Amanda now supports Open’s key funeral director accounts ensuring that they are supported in their funeral plan activity with Open.
Amanda and Catherine also work together to help Open’s IARs work as efficiently and productively as possible.
The Plan Arranger team
Kate Barrett - Funeral Plan Arranger Team leader - Kate’s primary role is to support and manage our Plan Arranger Team ensuring they’re delivering exemplary service to our clients and are up to date with their training and oversight. Kate has many years previous experience as a funeral director and arranger.
Amy Poppitt, Elaine Shedwick, Natalie Flynn, Lisa Adams, Theresa Hood – Plan Arrangers - Our Plan Arrangers are all funeral sector experienced and fully trained individuals who look after our client enquiries. They are responsible for ensuring our clients get the funeral plan they want and need, not just a stock one size fits all product, this ensure high customer satisfaction ratings.
Marketing and Digital Support
Kerris Morgan - Design, Print and Distribution - Kerris works with the team to discuss plan personalisation information and artwork and supports the print and distribution of Open Plan brochures and POS to FDs across the UK. She also now works with IARs to create digital and social media adverts and posts that are complaint with regulatory rules.
That’s our team of 15 who look after our clients and IARs on a daily basis, and who help us meet our goal and belief of being the best not the biggest, we believe that will deliver the best results for our clients.