John Gilbert has been a legal adviser to UK friendly societies and mutual insurers for almost 30 years.  He is a former partner and now part-time consultant to the international law firm Hogan Lovells and last year also established an independent consultancy practice, M&G Advisory Services Limited, in partnership with Richard Martin who recently retired from the UK financial services regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, where he specialised in the regulation of friendly societies.  John has been involved in most of the major developments in the UK mutual life insurance sector in recent years.  He is one of the first to have seen the potential synergies between the sector and Takaful and is a keen advocate of UK mutuals as a vehicle for sharia-compliant products in the UK and EU markets.