Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jun 28, 2026

Clive Cowdery

Sir Clive Cowdery is an English businessman and philanthropist who made a personal fortune in the insurance industry, founding two FTSE 100 insurers and a third insurer which was sold to Nippon Life for $8.2bn in October 2025, which represented 77% of the outstanding shares not yet owned by Nippon Life, valuing the business at $10.6bn. Cowdery has since donated large amounts to charity, including the Resolution Foundation which he founded in 2005.

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Sir Clive Cowdery
Born (1963-05-26) 26 May 1963
Bristol, England
EducationClevedon Comprehensive School
OccupationBusinessman
Known forFounder of Resolution, a global life insurance group
Children6

Sir Clive Cowdery (born 26 May 1963)1 is an English businessman and philanthropist who made a personal fortune in the insurance industry, founding two FTSE 100 insurers2 and a third insurer which was sold to Nippon Life for $8.2bn in October 2025, which represented 77% of the outstanding shares not yet owned by Nippon Life, valuing the business at $10.6bn.3 Cowdery has since donated large amounts to charity,4 including the Resolution Foundation which he founded in 2005.5

Early life

Born of Anglo Danish parentage6 in Bristol, England, in 1963, he is the second of five siblings.7 He was educated at Clevedon Comprehensive School (now Clevedon Community School), and earned three O-levels and no A-levels.7

Career

Clive's career as a leading life insurance executive and entrepreneur has encompassed start-ups and large businesses across markets in the United Kingdom, Europe, the United States and Asia.8

From 1998 to 2003, Cowdery was chairman and chief executive of General Electric Insurance Holdings, with operations in 12 countries in Europe.9

In 2003, Cowdery founded his first business under the Resolution brand, which invests in life insurance consolidation. Since then, Cowdery's Resolution companies have deployed over US$20 billion of equity in the acquisition, reinsurance, consolidation and management of life insurance companies. Together, these companies have served the needs of c.15 million policyholders while managing over US$375 billion of assets.10

His first Resolution vehicle consolidated four major UK closed life insurance companies from Royal Sun Alliance, Swiss Life, Britannic and Santander (Abbey National Life).11 The FTSE100 insurer was sold to Pearl Group in 2008.12

His second Resolution vehicle merged FTSE 100 insurer Friends Provident with AXA's UK life business and other assets. The company was sold to Aviva in 2015 for £5.2 billion.13

These two completed projects made significant total returns for shareholders.141516

In 2018, Cowdery founded Resolution Life, a global life insurance group with the specialist model focusing on the acquisition and management of life insurance companies and portfolios of existing life insurance policies.8 Prior to the sale to Nippon Life, Resolution Life, managed c.$90 billion of assets with portfolios and reinsurance treaties across the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, the United Kingdom and Asia.17

In Australasia, Resolution Life created a specialist life insurance business focussed specifically on the needs of existing customers rather than the promotion of new policies through the acquisition and integration of a number of businesses.18 These included the US$2.1 billion acquisition of AMP Limited's life insurance business, AMP Life;19 AIA Australia's superannuation and investment life insurance business in July 2023;20 and the NZ$410 million acquisition of Asteron Life New Zealand from Suncorp Group Limited in February 2025.21

In addition, Resolution Life operates a global reinsurance business in Bermuda.22

In October 2025, Resolution Life was acquired by Nippon Life. Cowdery remains its executive chairman.23

As part of the transaction, Resolution Life Australasia and Nippon Life's Australian company, MLC, merged to form Acenda Group, a new entity in the Asia-Pacific insurance market.24

According to a Bloomberg article in 2025 his net worth was estimated at £200 million.2

Charitable works

Since formation of his Resolution vehicles Cowdery has devoted half of all proceeds to charity.25 The Resolution Foundation, an independent social and economic research organisation set up by Cowdery in 2005, is considered to be one of Britain's leading authorities on low earners2 and the policy responses required to lift their living standards.6

Other professional interests

Cowdery is the owner of Resolution Media which invests in media assets and is Publisher of the magazine Prospect, a current affairs magazine.26 Along with George Soros, he was an early funder and served as a member of the governing council of The Institute for New Economic Thinking27 and, until February 2021, he was also a founder and director of Best for Britain, a group campaigning to stop Brexit.2829

In April 2025, Cowdery acquired an equity stake in The Observer and joined the media outlet's board.30

Personal life

Cowdery lives in London and has six children.7

Cowdery was knighted in the 2016 New Year Honours for services to children and social mobility.3132

References

References

  1. Cave, Andrew (15 November 2008). "Clive Cowdery's Resolution rises again". The Daily Telegraph.
  2. Aldrick, Philip (14 December 2025). "The Rags-to-Riches Capitalist Behind Britain's Most Influential Think Tank". Bloomberg.
  3. Ralph, Alex (11 December 2024). "Nippon Life buys Clive Cowdery's Resolution Life in $10.6bn deal". The Times.
  4. Cooney, Rebecca. "Wealthiest people gave £3.2bn to charity in the past year". www.thirdsector.co.uk. Retrieved 22 February 2022.
  5. Sellgren, Katharine (30 December 2015). "Knighthood for philanthropist Jack Petchey". BBC News.
  6. Ramesh, Randeep (28 February 2011). "Insurance tycoon Clive Cowdery goes on a mission to help the working poor". The Guardian.
  7. "Profile: Clive Cowdery: Class act who worked his way to top". The Scotsman. 14 August 2009. Retrieved 18 December 2017.
  8. "Resolution's Cowdery has $2 bln life insurance deal in sight". Reuters. 18 October 2018. Retrieved 23 February 2022.
  9. "The Interview: The insurance entrepreneur soon to be knocking at the FTSE 100's door". The Independent. 10 June 2005. Retrieved 22 February 2022.
  10. "About Us | Resolution Life". www.resolutionlife.com. Retrieved 22 February 2022.
  11. "The rise of Resolution". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 22 February 2022.
  12. Costello, Miles. "Upstart Cowdery shows how it's done". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
  13. Costello, Miles. "Friends Life agrees £5bn takeover by Aviva". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
  14. Gray, Alistair; Oakley, David; Massoudi, Arash (2 December 2014). "Aviva agrees £5bn takeover of Friends Life". Financial Times. Retrieved 22 February 2022.
  15. Guthrie, Jonathan (2 December 2014). "Work to do before Aviva investors welcome Friends". Financial Times. Retrieved 22 February 2022.
  16. "Interview | Clive Cowdery". the Guardian. 13 August 2009. Retrieved 22 February 2022.
  17. "New deal unlocks $4.1bn value for Allianz and scale for Resolution Life in 'undervalued' business". Intelligent Insurer. 3 December 2021.
  18. "Resolution Life Australasia to acquire AIA Australia's Superannuation & Investments business". Resolution Life. Retrieved 18 March 2026.
  19. Taylor, Mike (1 July 2020). "AMP Life sale finally completes for $3b". Money Management.
  20. Baigorri, Manuel (23 February 2022). "AIA Group to Sell Some Australian Assets to Resolution Life". Bloomberg.
  21. Wood, Daniel (3 February 2025). "Suncorp completes life insurance sale". Insurance Business Magazine.
  22. "Resolution Life empowers life insurers to focus on growth and resilience". InsuranceERM. 11 November 2025.
  23. Jain, Saumya (9 January 2026). "Resolution Life names Moses Ojeisekhoba as new CEO". Reinsurance News.
  24. Libatique, Roxanne (4 November 2025). "Resolution Life Australasia and Nippon Life's Australian company, MLC, will be merged to form Acenda". Insurance Business Asia.
  25. Neville, Sarah (30 April 2015). "Clive Cowdery donates £50m to research living standards". Financial Times. Retrieved 25 February 2022.
  26. "Alan Rusbridger to be next editor of Prospect magazine". www.inpublishing.co.uk. 27 July 2021. Retrieved 22 February 2022.
  27. "INET Welcomes Clive Cowdery to Its Governing Board". Institute for New Economic Thinking. 7 December 2018. Retrieved 18 March 2026.
  28. "About Us". bestforbritain.org. Archived from the original on 12 May 2017. Retrieved 20 February 2020.
  29. "UK-EU OPEN POLICY LIMITED - Officers (free information from Companies House)". beta.companieshouse.gov.uk.
  30. Cahill, Helen (25 April 2025). "Insurance tycoon Clive Cowdery takes stake in The Observer". The Times.
  31. "No. 61450". The London Gazette (Supplement). 30 December 2015. p. N2.
  32. "New Year's Honours 2016 list" (PDF). Government of the United Kingdom. 30 December 2015. Retrieved 30 December 2015.
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