"Setting up one of the world's largest insurance broking and risk management networks has shown me just how much work there is still to do if we are to create a truly single market for the goods and services which this country produces. The City of London is the world's pre-eminent banking, finance and insurance marketplace and I want to ensure that it remains so."

Based in the City of London I work for Heath Lambert the UK's leading independent insurance broker and employee benefits consultant. My role, within the Group's marketing department, is to look after the interests of our growing bank of affinity group connections. This involves my working with commercial trade associations, mass membership organisations and a range of medical charities.

Prior to taking on my current role, I spent nearly a decade helping to create Heath Lambert's international broker network HLA Global. Now owned by Wells Fargo Insurance Services, HLA Global today operates in more than sixty countries and provides services in over 100 territories. I was particularly involved in the setting up and running of the European portion of the network and this gave me a real insight into the issues and challenges which trading insurance broking services on an EU wide scale still poses.

In April 2002 our work in creating the network was recognised with the Queen's Award for Innovation in International Trade.

For Londoners to prosper we need to ensure that London has a strong and vibrant economy, excellent trade links and fair access to our EU partners' markets. The City of London has a huge role to play in maintaining the strength of our economy and I will fight to ensure that as much unnecessary and restrictive legislation and regulation as possible is removed and that new proposals are opposed unless they are in our interests.