Market Moves - 26 March 2015

Insurers

Direct Line Group
Direct Line Group senior independent director Glyn Jones will not be submitting himself for re-election as a director at the company's 2015 annual general meeting.

Jones is currently chairman of listed companies the Aldermore Group and Aspen Insurance Holdings. Because of these roles he has decided to reduce the number of non-executive directorships he holds.

DLG audit committee chair and non-executive director Andrew Palmer has taken over as senior independent director and will be formerly appointed to the role at the AGM on 13 May.

Covéa
Covéa has expanded its Southern regional presence with the appointment of Steph Butler to the role of field underwriter. 

The role will focus on delivering underwriting solutions for small and mid-sized businesses with the aim of supporting profitable growth of the company's commercial account.

Butler recently completed a secondment as business development manager in the Reading office.

Axa Assistance
Anthony Bradley has been promoted to chief financial officer at Axa Assistance UK. He was previously the firm's deputy CFO and will now assume responsibility for all aspects of financial control, reporting and accounting functions.

Brokers

Bollington
Bollington has made a trio of appointments to its motor trade team.

Pauline Brookes joins as commercial development manager, heading up the motor trade combined sales team.

She is joined at Bollington by former FM Green account managers Gary Cotterell and Adrian Bridges, who re-join Bollington after a six-year hiatus via Ernest R Shaw.

Brookes, who brings over 16 years of experience in motor trade insurance to Bollington, also arrives from E R Shaw, where she acted as new business and servicing director for more than a decade.

She will lead Bollington's nationwide team of motor trade account managers and maintain responsibility for driving business sales growth in this division.

JLT Re
JLT Re (North America) has appointed Matthew Robertson as senior vice president in the regional team led by John DeMartini.

Robertson has previously worked at Gen Re, Aon Re, Everest Re, and Guy Carpenter and his experience spans from servicing and globally syndicating property catastrophe reinsurance for active clients to new business production within the regional capability.

Chase Templeton
Chase Templeton has recruited former Simplyhealth strategic account executive Gillian Adams to head its SME department.

Adams spent seven-and-a-half years with Groupama Healthcare and then Simplyhealth when it acquired the insurer in 2012. There she was responsible for managing key accounts, developing new and existing business as well as coaching and mentoring account managers.

Managing General Agents

Bluefin Underwriting
Bluefin Underwriting has appointed Jon May and Andy Hill as head of underwriting for specialist motor and head of underwriting for bike respectively.

May, who left ERS in May last year having most recently served as head of bespoke motor, brings 25 years UK motor underwriting experience including roles at KGM and Lloyds.

He will be responsible for overseeing and developing Bluefin Underwriting's new specialist motor team, which will provide underwriting solutions for many types of motor risk including adverse history and hard to place car and van risks, classic and collectable cars, modified vehicles, motor homes, kit cars and motor bikes.

He will report into Paul Drake, chief underwriting officer of Bluefin Underwriting.

Hill, who served as head of underwriting at ERS before departing the insurer in December 2013, has more than 30 years' experience in motor underwriting including roles at Service and Shead Motor Policies.
He will report into May and be responsible for developing the underwriter's motor bike offering which will include standard and non-standard risk solutions.

Fusion
Fusion Insurance Services has made three new appointments and a promotion at its Manchester office.

Dan Wilde joins from Travelers as a regional development underwriter, Charlotte Craven has been appointed as a motor fleet trading underwriter after moving across from Fusion's Leeds office and Kimberley Bloor has been recruited from W R Berkley as an assistant underwriter.

In addition, Mark Johnson has been promoted to regional underwriting manager.

Loss adjusters

Davies
Davies Group liability director Suzanne Kearney has been promoted to a group-level role responsible for developing UK-wide broker nominations.

Kearney will continue to handle first and third party losses.

Legal

Hill Dickinson
Hill Dickinson's counter fraud group has hired risk modelling specialist Raph Lawson as data scientist.

Lawson will work with the team to positively disrupt traditional intelligence services and help clients move their counter fraud controls from a reactive approach to a proactive one; from traditional offerings that aim to capture fraud after it has occurred to predictive modelling that prevents fraud much earlier.

DAC Beachcroft
DAC Beachroft has appointed Colin Bissett to lead its insurance-related regulatory unit in Scotland.

Bissett joins DAC Beachcroft to further develop and handle instructions from insurers and other clients in the investigation and defence of motor, health and safety and environmental prosecutions, fatal accident inquiries and ‘white collar' offences.

A member of the executive committee of the Glasgow Bar Association, Bissett began his career in criminal defence work in Glasgow, he joined Bell, Russell & Co in 2005 with responsibility for the criminal department, before becoming a partner there in 2009.

Since 2012, he has run his own criminal law practice.