The latest senior hires and appointments news for you;
MARKERSTUDY
Markerstudy Group announce the appointment of Neil Utley and Matthew Donaldson (pictured) as Non Executive Directors.
The Group has enjoyed significant activity and growth during the first half of 2021, following investment from Pollen Street Capital and Qatar Insurance Company, and the purchase of Brightside Insurance. Benny Higgins joined as Group Chairman, and the retail and affinity division restructured and adopted the new name Markerstudy Broking, to reflect its identity and the services it delivers.
Neil Utley’s career in financial services spans more than 30 years; with ten years in the banking sector, followed by 20 years in insurance. Notably, Neil has held Chief Executive roles with Privilege Insurance Company, and Cox Insurance Group (renamed Equity Insurance Group) and was a member of the Insurance Australia Group (IAG) Executive Committee. More recently, as Chairman of Hastings Insurance Group, Neil led the MBO from IAG, undertook an IPO and subsequent listing on the UK Stock Exchange. He is the founder of The Utley Foundation, a charity underpinned by a passion for music, which primarily supports children and armed forces veterans, and focuses on music for people with dementia and their carers.
Matthew Donaldson also has extensive experience in the financial services and insurance sector, most recently as Group CEO of BGL Group where he joined as National Sales and Operations Director in 2001, and held pivotal senior roles, including Director of E-Commerce, Managing Director, and Group COO. He led the development of BGL’s digital strategy resulting in the creation of comparethemarket.com. More recently, Matthew has held NED appointments for Cambridge Building Society, and Oplo, and is currently Chairman of Livingbridge PE backed Three Rock Group (Ireland).
ROKSTONE
Rokstone, the International Speciality (Re)Insurance MGA, part of Aventum Group, has announced the appointment of Ian Anson to Managing Director.
Ian Anson joined the group last year as a Portfolio Manager and has swiftly been promoted to Managing Director in just 18 months. Before joining Aventum he spent six years at Alesco Risk Management Services where he was initially a placing broker for four years before being promoted to Associate Partner in 2017.
As Managing Director of Rokstone’s global group operations, Ian will work closely with the CEO and CUO in delivering profitable growth across the group.
James Potter, CEO of Rokstone, comments: “When Ian joined us just 18 months ago to take up a Portfolio Manager role, we knew then that we were securing one of the brightest new talents in the market. He has already delivered multiple commercial growth opportunities and aptly demonstrated outstanding leadership qualities. It was soon clear to us that his advanced commercial, strategic and critical thinking would make him the perfect candidate. As Managing Director he will be a driving force on our journey to become the best global (re)insurance specialty business in the world.”
CRUM & FORSTER
Crum & Forster announces the appointment of Daniel L. Sussman as President of its Credit division, effective immediately, reflecting its commitment to continued growth in the credit insurance market. He will report to Marc Adee, Chief Executive Officer of Crum & Forster.
In his role, Sussman is responsible for leading C&F’s expanding admitted and surplus lines credit insurance platforms, covering a full range of credit risks for North American customers and other select jurisdictions. He also will oversee the strategic partnership with Nexus Underwriting, Ltd. in London – Nexus C&F – which offers an established presence for serving U.K. and Continental European clients.
“Dan’s breadth of knowledge and expertise make him the perfect fit to lead our efforts in the competitive credit insurance market,” said Adee. “We look forward to Dan and his outstanding team driving profitable growth across the division’s extensive product suite, as well as supporting the increasingly diverse risk management needs of a wide range of customers.”
WOODGATE & CLARK
Loss adjuster Woodgate & Clark has appointed Sarah Durkin as senior fraud investigator. Sarah began her new role in September and reports to Marie Quinn, head of Counter Fraud.
Her role will focus on delivering a customer and client focussed investigation service and will play a key part in delivering Woodgate and Clark’s counter fraud strategy, which combines technology with more traditional detection and investigative skills to detect and prevent fraud across the insurance lifecycle.
Marie said: “Sarah is a highly experienced fraud investigator who will add significantly to our counter fraud proposition for insurance clients. There is particular concern in our industry about the opportunity provided by the pandemic for fraudulent behaviour, and it is important that we marry the right people with the latest technological tools to stay one step ahead of fraudsters looking to exploit the pandemic.”
Loss adjusting has a pivotal role to play in assisting insurers identify and deal with claims and underwriting fraud, and it’s great that Sarah is joining the team now, as she will give a further boost to our anti-fraud proposition.
Sarah Durkin has 26 years of investigative and counter fraud experience, including seven years in the insurance industry. Previously she fulfilled a variety of roles in the public and private sectors, including the police service and HM Customs & Excise. She joins Woodgate & Clark from Sedgwick where she was a commercial investigator.
PEN UNDERWRITING
Pen Underwriting announces that Tom Dixon has been appointed to the newly created role of Head of Technology as it continues to invest in extending and diversifying its product offering for the benefit of brokers and their clients.
Tom will join Pen on Thursday 23 September to drive the development of innovative new insurance solutions that support the rapid growth of the technology sector in the UK – a sector which last year raised more than $15bn of investment, more than Germany and France combined.
Tom will report into Adrian Scott, Managing Director of International & Financial Lines at Pen Underwriting.
Highly respected and exceptionally well-connected in the tech insurance sector, Tom joins from Hiscox where as Head of Technology he has led its UK & Ireland technology practice since the beginning of 2018. Prior to that he held a range of underwriting, business development and leadership roles focused on professional indemnity (PI) and the wider field of specialist commercial insurance since joining the company in 2009.
At Pen, Tom will build and develop a comprehensive PI-led portfolio of risk solutions tailored to meet the complex and fast-evolving needs of a broad spectrum of technology companies ranging from software developers, internet service providers and GDPR consultants, to specialists in blockchain, artificial intelligence and data analytics.
GENERALI
Pedro Ruano – former Head of GC&C Iberia & LatAm- is appointed as new Head of Claims. In his new capacity, Pedro is responsible for steering the claims processes at global level. Pedro directly reports to Hayden Seach, within the newly created Insurance function, formerly Underwriting function. The new Insurance structure, headed by Hayden Seach as GC&C Head of Insurance(formerly GC&C Head of Underwriting), leads and oversees the activities related to the entire insurance process, fostering corporate portfolio management and leveragingefficiency in the interdependencies between each underwriting line of business, the pricing, loss prevention and claims processes.
Commenting on the appointment, GC&C CEO Manlio Lostuzzi declared: “We are delighted to announce these organizational appointments that will further equip us in executing our strategy and serving our clients at the highest level. We are constantly committed to enhance our ability to fulfill the needs of our clients and these appointments go exactly in this direction. The newly created Insurance function will guarantee a further straightforward management direction amongst the entire insurance processes, improving synergies, efficiency and delivery.”
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