Aviva broker boss Deakin drawn to Gallagher opportunities

Former Aviva intermediary & partnerships director Janice Deakin has said she is sad to leave the insurer, but could not pass up the chance to become Arthur J Gallagher’s UK commercial director.

Deakin said: “I think I always said that if I came back, I’d come back as a broker.

“I am hugely sad to be leaving Aviva. But one thing I really made my mind up about was I couldn’t change my stripes and go and work for another insurer. My heart has been in the broker world, and I am just going to the other side of it.

“Going into it and being a broker is something I really want to have a crack at, and this is a great opportunity with a great business.”

Deakin said her message to UK brokers was that her team at Aviva was strong and had good relationships with intermediaries. She added: “I’m just one person. The biggest thing I’ve done is put that team together and got the best out of them.”

She said that her role would oversee acquisitions, and said her experience of UK brokers gained from Aviva would help her.

“There always is a pipeline, and there are always opportunities,” she said. “They have been pretty successful at it so far. I suppose my knowledge of the broking world will help inform that. Every size and shape of broker I’ve come across, in the past seven or eight years.”