Guy Carpenter suspends senior boss following harassment claims

James Conmy, senior VP for marine and energy at Guy Carpenter made the comments in an email to all brokers in his division. He has been suspended following the incident, pending further investigation. 

In an email sent yesterday, seen by Post, Conmy wrote: “I hope people like Krispy Kremes – I know [name redacted] enjoys a glazed ring.”

Conmy was writing in reference to doughnuts he had brought in to celebrate his birthday.

According to a response from the individual singled out by Conmy, sent to him and all brokers cc’d in, he was reported to HR.

She replied: “This is absolutely totally unacceptable James.

“There are limits to ‘jokes’ you can send at work copying in all colleagues – this is extremely rude and offensive.

“Please note that this will be forwarded to HR – HAPPY BIRTHDAY!”

Post was also sent a doctored image, of unknown provenance, of the female member of staff’s Linkedin profile, in which her job roles had been altered to read “snitch” and “glazed ring specialist”.

The woman singled out by the email did not respond to a request for comment by Post.

A spokesperson for Guy Carpenter said: “We take all incidents of harassment very seriously and will not tolerate any behaviour that breaches our code of conduct. Our first priority is our affected colleague and we are offering all the support and counselling we can.

“Those involved in sending and externally disseminating this email have been suspended from the firm pending further investigation.”

Further allegations

The inappropriate comment came a day after two executives at Tokio Marine Kiln resigned following allegations of sexual harassment.

One was alleged to have groped colleagues at a party, while another was accused of stalking a colleague, Bloomberg reported.

A spokesperson for Tokio Marine Kiln said: “TMK has clear standards and policies for workplace conduct, any breach of these will be taken extremely seriously and would not reflect our company values. A formal and independent investigation is already underway, and we are working with external HR advisors to identify areas where we can drive further progress.”

Further allegations emerged when Sophie Jarvis, a former underwriting assistant for MS Amlin who has also held roles at Channel Syndicate and Special Contingency Risks according to her LinkedIn profile, wrote in the Evening Standard that ex Lloyd’s CEO Inga Beale was dubbed a “muffmuncher” by some working in the Lloyd’s market. 

Jarvis was allegedly also told to expect sexism in the market. She added: “I remember once how a senior broker came to our box and declared: ‘All you women are good for is spending our money.’ I quipped back: ‘And writing your policies’.

“I was rather pleased at my speedy response, until my manager pulled me to one side for a rollicking: ‘If you don’t like that kind of joke, Lloyd’s isn’t for you.’ And that was from one of my few female bosses.”

In March a Bloomberg Businessweek report on sexual harassment and bullying allegations at Lloyd’s of London rocked the institution, with one source having described it as a “meat market.”

Lloyd’s later pledged that it would implement potential lifetime bans for perpetrators of sexual harassment and set up a confidential reporting system for victims.

Nearly one in five (20%) of respondents to the Post 2019 Insurance Survey said they had been victims of sexual harassment in the workplace.