Willis Group Holdings has appointed two new Regional Managing Directors for Willis Networks, the global insurance broker’s alliance with local, independent brokers in the UK. Mike Rush will be responsible for Willis Networks in Scotland, Northern England and Northern Ireland, while Simon Taylor will look after Central and Southern England and Wales. Both will report to Phil Scarrett, Managing Director, Willis Networks.
Rush and Taylor will be based in Preston and London respectively and will both work with members of the Willis Commercial Network (WCN), which represents brokers placing annual premiums of between £3 million [$4.82 million] and £40 million [$64.27 million], and Willis N2, which represents smaller community brokers with up to £3 million in annual premium placements.
Rush has more than 30 years experience in Insurance. He joins Willis from the Broker Network Group where he was Regional Director for Southern England. Before that, he ran his own company offering business development and marketing consultancy services to various financial services institutions, specializing in the insurance arena. Rush also spent over 20 years in insurance broking working for various regional, national and Lloyd’s brokers.
Taylor’s most recent role was as Sales & Marketing Director for Primary General, an underwriting company that provides commercial underwriting and risk management solutions to intermediaries for small to medium sized UK businesses. Before that he spent five years at NIG, the National Insurance and Guarantee Corporation, focusing on mid market business via large commercial and national brokers.
Scarrett commented: “Mike understands the importance that regional brokers place on remaining independent, a belief that Willis Networks is firmly founded on. Having worked on the network, broking and consultancy sides of the business, he knows the challenges that regional brokers face and what they need from us and our insurer partners to meet those challenges.
“Simon has a deep understanding of the UK commercial insurance intermediated market and the knowledge to build strong, stand-out products and value-added services for our members that they can pass on to their clients.
“Our Regional Managing Directors work closely with Network members to help them grow organically and by acquisition, and to ensure that they receive the full benefit of our wide ranging training and marketing support and access to the market.”
In other news, Willis Networks has also promoted Bernard Farrell from Regional Managing Director for Scotland, Northern England and Northern Ireland to overall Sales Director, while further increasing its regional presence with the appointments of Simon Clegg and Jayne Bolton as Business Development Manager and Regional Operations Manager respectively. Willis Networks also announced that it has appointed Andrew Tilley as Online Marketing Manager to support its members in growing their online distribution and marketing channels.
Source: Willis Group Holdings
Topics Agencies
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