Latest Job Moves and Senior Hires 13.02.21

The latest job moves news for you;

GALLAGHER

Gallagher has announced Chris Patterson, previously group managing director at Bollington, has been appointed regional managing director for the North West. In addition to continuing to oversee Bollington operations, Chris will lead all of the Gallagher offices in the region, which are based in Liverpool, Manchester, Sale and Chester. Chris will report into Peter Matthews, managing director for the North.

After 19 years with Aviva, Chris joined Bollington in 2008 and has held various leadership roles for the business over the last 13 years. Commenting on his new role, Chris said: “I am delighted to be expanding my role to head up all of Gallagher’s UK Retail operations in the North West. We have a fantastic opportunity to build on what both Bollington and Gallagher have achieved so far in the region, and I am looking forward to bringing together two talented teams to benefit our clients.”

Gallagher also confirmed that Phil Evans will move into a leadership role in Gallagher’s SME and personal lines team, which has over 1000 employees and looks after 900,000 customers. Phil will report into managing director, Gareth Birch. He will stay in his current role of managing director for micro-SME and personal lines for Bollington, and will continue to lead his 170-strong team. Phil joined Bollington in 2019 having previously worked at Carole Nash, overseeing the integration of the business with Autonet, part of the Ardonagh Group.

KEOGHS

Leading insurance law firm Keoghs has launched one of the industry’s first graduate programmes for aspiring Solicitors.

Launched in partnership with the University of Law, the Graduate Entry Solicitor Apprenticeship scheme removes a key financial barrier to the legal profession by enabling people with a qualifying law degree to access training as a solicitor, irrespective of whether they have a Postgraduate Diploma in Legal Practice (LPC).

Successful candidates without the LPC are channelled to the Graduate Entry Solicitor Apprenticeship scheme, and those who hold the LPC complete a traditional Training Contract. In the last round of recruitment, there was an equal split of Training Contracts and Graduate Entry Solicitor Apprentices. The scheme was launched with eight colleagues at Keoghs – legal solutions arm of Davies, the leading specialist professional services and technology business – starting their Graduate Entry Solicitor apprenticeship.

MARSH

Marsh, the world’s leading insurance broker and risk advisor, today announced the appointment of Ankur Kacker as UK Digital Asset Leader in the Financial & Professional (FINPRO) Practice, Marsh JLT Specialty. Mr. Kacker is based in London and reports to Philip Turner, Specie Practice Leader. Mr. Kacker joined Marsh in Mumbai as a graduate in 2008 and moved to London in 2017 as part of the UK Specie Practice, where he specialised in digital assets insurance. During his 13 year career, Mr. Kacker has worked with clients across a wide range of industries including financial institutions and technology organisations.

In his new role, Mr Kacker is responsible for development of new insurance solutions for digital assets such as cryptocurrency. He will also continue to work closely with the business’s New York based Digital Asset Risk Transfer (DART) team, which offers risk transfer solutions to firms operating in the areas of blockchain, cryptocurrency, and digital assets.

ALLIANZ

Allianz Partners UK and Ireland has selected Ailsa Oxley as its Human Resources Director. The travel insurance, automotive and assistance business will benefit from Oxley’s extensive experience gained from working for companies that cultivate the same global-local environment nurtured at Allianz Partners. It is, however, her commitment to embracing technology to enhance people’s roles, encouraging employee-led ideas and a passion for nurturing positive wellbeing that makes her stand out.

Oxley has 15 years’ experience leading HR teams across financial, legal and software organisations and won a HR Excellence Award for best talent management strategy across EMEA. She joins Allianz Partners from software design company, Hexagon PPM. Here she introduced global human resource management systems to enable effective talent organisation across all regions, identifying and developing specialism. Her work also included a talent tracking system, where she implemented enterprising recruitment software and recruited across 20 countries, making talent pipeline visible and reducing time to hire and fees.

Oxley commented on her appointment: “I am thrilled to be joining the team at Allianz Partners. Its innovative and dynamic approach to winning and retaining business, whilst challenging traditional business protocols, hugely appeals to me and I want to uphold and develop its global reputation.”

Allianz Insurance has also appointed Andrew Levens as its new property and casualty manager for Manchester.

In his new role, Andrew will play a vital role in the Manchester Senior Leadership Team, as he will manage Allianz’s Property and Casualty accounts in the North West. He will also provide a major contribution to the development of the skills and talent of underwriters in his area.

SEDGWICK

Sedgwick, a leading global provider of technology-enabled risk, benefits and integrated business solutions, announced that Hannah Dixon has joined the
company as client director for the UK. Dixon’s appointment follows a period of growth for Sedgwick in the UK. She will focus on generating new business, strengthening client relationships, and working with the operational teams to deliver best-in-class services to existing and prospective clients.

With over 10 years of experience in the insurance sector Dixon joins Sedgwick from a major insurance group and brings proven expertise in vendor and operational management, selection and oversight across multiple lines of business. She is also experienced in the design and build of operational claims teams; and relationship management across claims, underwriting, sales, brokers, managing general agents (MGAs) and vendors.

Dixon is well known for her work for Insurance United Against Dementia (IUAD) where she is on the board and regularly speaks at industry events to help raise awareness of dementia. In her new role, Dixon will replace Mark George, who is due to retire in May after 25 years with the company.

LIBERTY

Liberty Specialty Markets (LSM), part of Liberty Mutual Insurance Group, announced the appointment of Terry FitzGerald to the role of Divisional Head of Financial and Professional Lines (FinPro). He will be based at LSM’s London office and joins with immediate effect.