Anne Bardsley: From Saturday filing clerk to south west growth leader

When Anne Bardsley was 16, she took a Saturday job filing paperwork at a small family-owned insurance broker in the Cotswolds.

It was hardly the conventional starting point for a career spanning complex multinationals, financial lines, decarbonisation projects and senior leadership. But rather than simply filing away the experience, Bardsley became fascinated by what she saw.

More importantly, she watched how the broker interacted with its customers.

“They weren’t just their clients, they were part of the DNA of that business,” she says. “They cared so deeply about what they were doing, how they could protect them, how they could help them.”

That early exposure to independent broking would ultimately shape much of Bardsley’s career – and now, more than 20 years later, sits at the heart of her latest challenge.

In January 2026, she joined Verlingue as corporate director for the south west, tasked with establishing the broker’s presence in a region where she believes there is an increasingly obvious gap in the market.

Cotswolds filing to complex risks

Bardsley did not, by her own account, “fall into” insurance – a phrase she says is common among industry professionals.

After her Saturday job, she joined a development scheme and quickly moved into commercial broking, eventually running a nine-person commercial team.

But she wanted more.

In her early twenties, she moved to Bristol, beginning a 15-year career that later continued under Brown and Brown.

Bardsley progressed from account handler to heading up the corporate proposition across the south west, building teams and developing a reputation for handling difficult and unusual risks.

The work included dealing with complex multinationals, financial lines and transactional risks, as well as clients she had supported from inception through to public listing.

But after 15 years at the same organisation, Bardsley was ready for a different perspective.

She moved client side in 2024, joining Fortescue Zero as head of risk and insurance at a time when the business was pursuing an ambitious decarbonisation programme.

The role put her on the other side of the broker-client relationship, working on decarbonisation projects for the Australian mining group.

“I joined at a time where Fortescue Zero was growing at just an incredible pace,” she says.

The experience was “absolutely fascinating” and gave Bardsley insights into what clients need from their brokers.

Finding the ‘unicorn’

Following her time at Fortescue, Bardsley took a period away from work to consider what she wanted next.

Rather than simply accepting the next opportunity, she drew up a “bucket list” of what she wanted from an employer – including ownership structure, direction and values.

Eventually, she found one.

Bardsley was introduced to Verlingue and spent time meeting members of its executive committee before deciding that its independent, family-owned structure and culture aligned with what she had been looking for.

“What I really loved about my interactions with the ex-co’s [executive committee’s] as we were building out the proposition was that it was very much built around me,” she says.

“How do we get the best out of you? What do we build around you?”

For Bardsley, that people-focused approach was crucial.

“To join the business, you have to be a Verlingue person,” she says. “It’s like you’ve arrived home.”

Now she is attempting to take that culture into a market where she believes there is space for an independent broker able to serve clients that do not fit neatly into the propositions offered by the largest national firms.

Building a different proposition

Bristol was an obvious starting point, with Insurance Times revealing on Tuesday (14 September 2026) that the broker was opening a new office there.

Bardsley describes it as one of the UK’s most buoyant insurance centres outside London and says establishing a base there demonstrates Verlingue’s commitment to strengthening its local presence.

For the remainder of 2026, the priority is less about rapid recruitment and more about embedding the team and establishing Verlingue’s presence.

“We have a highly experienced team in place and are excited about the opportunities ahead as we continue to support organisations with their insurance, risk management and employee benefits needs,” Bardsley says.

Bardsley says the plan is to scale the operation through 2027, with “ambitious and aggressive growth targets” while recruiting experienced, locally knowledgeable brokers and directors to complement the existing team.

In turn, the longer-term ambition is considerably larger than a Bristol office.

She wants Verlingue to become the first name that comes to mind when businesses in the region need an independent broker.

“When people talk about who is the go-to in the south west, I want Verlingue to be known as that number one trusted independent adviser in the south west. That’s the ambition.”

Growth, but not at any cost

For Bardsley, achieving that ambition is not simply a question of winning as much business as possible.

She is particularly conscious of the dangers of allowing growth targets to overshadow the relationships that underpin independent broking.

“We want to partner with clients that share our values and share our vision,” she says.

That means becoming involved in the wider journey of a business – whether that means an acquisition, expansion or exit – rather than simply placing an insurance programme.

It is an approach that also informs her view of the current soft market.

Bardsley believes brokers need to manage client expectations while prices remain attractive, because the market will eventually turn.

“The soft market will inevitably come to an end,” she says. “Anyone that’s been in the industry long enough knows that this is cyclical.”

For her, that makes the strength of the broker-client relationship more important, rather than less.

‘I’m absolutely in the trenches’

If Bardsley has a defining leadership philosophy, it is one of proximity.

“I believe in doing, right, getting in trenches,” she says. “I’m absolutely in the trenches. I play a manager. So I will be on the pitch with you.”

Her leadership style is inclusive, but there is another thread running through her career – developing people.

She points to former trainees she has helped develop who have since moved into senior positions across the industry, including one who is now chair of the Biba west of England committee.

That focus has become increasingly important to her as she considers the future of the insurance workforce.

“There is no playbook for what we do,” she says. “You learn in this industry through osmosis.”

For Bardsley, experienced professionals have a responsibility to provide that second stage of learning to the next generation.

It is also why passion matters so much to her when recruiting.

“We can teach things,” she says. “But what we can’t teach is passion.”

That philosophy can be traced all the way back to her first Saturday job in the Cotswolds, where she first saw insurance as something more than a product.

And it is perhaps best summed up by the advice of her former managing director and mentor, Ian Gosden, founder of Higos.

His rule was simple – look after your clients, look after your people and the numbers follow.

“Do the right thing,” Bardsley says.

More than two decades after she first encountered that principle, she is now taking it into the next stage of her career – with a new team, a new region and a very clear idea of what she wants to build.