Dunbar chief stays to take up BAFS job

David Sims, who had been headhunted from Allied Dunbar to go to Norwich Union as group head of marketing, is staying at the insurer, taking a top marketing job for parent company BAFS.

This U-turn means Sims will stay as marketing director of Dunbar, but will also be marketing director for Eagle Star life and pensions and Threadneedle Asset Management.

The move is a further indication of the intention to merge BAFS operations, first revealed in Marketing Week (November 10 1995).

Sims was marketing operations director at Dunbar and was meant to replace Jerry Grayburn, who became a BAFS director in November (MW November 15 1996). Grayburn’s remit was to oversee the merger of the IFA divisions of BAFS’ three companies.

Sims decision means Norwich Union is without a group marketing director in the run-up to its Stock Market flotation this year.