Lea Cheesbrough: From nurse to networker and becoming a ‘one woman crusade for independent broking’

The UK general insurance (UKGI) market often talks about its professionals ‘falling’ into their careers, rather than actively choosing to enter the industry from day one post-education.

Keeping to this analogy, it is safe to say that Lea Cheesbrough – managing director at appointed representative (AR) broker network Movo Partnership and chief executive at its parent company, Movo Group – sky dived from a great height into UKGI back in 2003, after being an oncology nurse in the National Health Service (NHS) and then working her way up the corporate ladder in the retail fragrance sector after family life took shift work off the table.

Although Cheesbrough first entered broking for work-life balance reasons – initially needing a local 9am to 5pm role that could accommodate nursery drop off and childcare commitments, without too many big responsibilities that would take her away from her young family – she readily acknowledges that becoming a broker was her “sliding doors moment”, transforming the trajectory of her life as she knew it.

Fast forward to 2026 and Cheesbrough is now well known in the insurance market as an advocate for AR brokers, with Movo Partnership hitting £200m in gross written premium (GWP) as of March 2026, employing 60 staff and the network reaching a tally of 125 broker members – with a further 20 so far confirmed to join this year.

And, at the beginning of May 2026, Cheesbrough launched a brand new network proposition – called Movo Fusion – looking to offer the same support services that Movo Partnership provides to ARs, but targeting a new audience of directly authorised brokers.

“The importance of serving your community and serving those customers is just something I’ve loved from day one,” Cheesbrough tells Insurance Times.

“That’s what I loved about being a broker. But then to be in a position [at a broker network] where I can use my experience to help brokers be the best they can be, get the best insurers, get the best covers, give the best advice – I really love that.

“The appeal for me is working with individuals who want to offer a service, enabling brokers to be the best they can. It probably goes back to my first job in insurance because I was a local community broker in a very small village where you insured the candlestick maker. The way that drives community is really empowering.

“To walk through my village on a Saturday morning and go to my butcher’s [shop] knowing that I look after [their insurance] – as a broker, you really care about your customers. You are their critical friend. They might ring you on Sunday because there’s a fire, but your role is so crucial. It’s so important. For me, [building a broker network] was not wanting to see that disappear.”

Targeting ‘a lesser mortal’

Cheesbrough first moved from being a broker into the network arena back in 2014, when she joined Broker Network as head of broker development.

However, it was a subsequent meeting with businessman Golan Lambranzi in 2018 which led to “the job that’s going to give me fire in my belly”, as “blue sky thinker” Lambranzi headhunted Cheesbrough to help him establish a new broker network and organise the existing five teams that sat within Movo Group.

Cheesbrough was already working her notice period when she met Lambranzi. She officially teamed up with him in November 2018 and “Movo Partnership was born” in September 2019.

For a set fee, the network offers compliance and governance support, human resources functionality, a placement team, systems support, Terms of Business Agreement (Toba) work and an in-house claims team – where eight claims handlers currently deal with around 4,000 claims a year from Movo Partnership’s broker members.

The differentiator, however, is that Movo Partnership is specifically and solely for AR brokers – those that conduct regulated insurance activities under the permissions of a principal firm, rather than having direct FCA authorisation themselves.

For Cheesbrough, this focus is vital because she feels that, historically, ARs were viewed “as a really dirty word” or “deemed to be a lesser mortal” compared to directly authorised brokers.

“[ARs] are rational, technical insurance brokers, but just because they’re ARs, it’s seen as a negative,” she explains. “I thought ‘hang on. How about I create a network that allows appointed representatives to be exactly the same as directly authorised?’

“[Insurers] saw [ARs] as not professional, not trained and not technical. The timing for [Movo Partnership] was a light bulb moment.”

AR evolution

The AR regime was first introduced by the UK government in 1986 for investment services. It was subsequently adapted and applied to a broader range of financial services activity through the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000.

Cheesbrough notes that although “there has always been some understanding of ARs, I don’t think people had the rigour and the regulation” around the regime at first.

She continues: “I don’t think the FCA understood how it used to happen back in the 80s and 90s. It became a little bit like a free for all. No one had to prove they were capable, no one had to prove they were able. So, you had a lot of people probably in it for themselves.”

Cheesbrough identifies “the real changing point” for ARs taking place in 2016 and 2017, when the FCA conducted and then published its Thematic review: Principals and their appointed representatives (ARs) in the general insurance (GI) sector.

“That [review] really scratched the surface [of] how people had just not done things as they should have been done,” she tells Insurance Times. “Insurers weren’t happy with appointed representatives because there wasn’t the oversight governance. It needed ripping up and starting again. That’s what the white paper did really well.”

This review was followed by the FCA’s PS22/11: Improving the appointed representatives regime update, effective from December 2022, which included changes such as a mandatory 30-day pre-notification of new AR appointments, annual self-assessments of AR suitability and enhanced data reporting on AR complaints and revenue.

This was designed to significantly increase the responsibilities of principal firms to reduce consumer harm.

Cheesbrough describes these rule changes as “a brilliant turning point”.

She adds: “The FCA really helped professionalise appointed representatives because they’re now being held [to account] at the same level as a directly authorised broker, if not more so. The FCA cleaning it up gave the insurers comfort.”

For Cheesbrough, Movo Partnership’s launch in between these two regime milestones was important. Insurer appetite to engage with ARs was increasing as FCA involvement escalated, leaving Cheesbrough feeling that she had ringfenced “a gap in the market”.

She explains: “I read through the FCA handbook to work out [whether this was an] FCA thing that an appointed representative can’t deal directly with an insurer. The more research I did, and I did months of research on this, it was very much [just a case that] the insurers did not want [to work with ARs].

“That was when I thought there’s a gap in market here because [existing ARs can] either go to an AR network, but [they] can’t broke. Some appointed representatives may have deals with insurers, which means it might not even go to the right market. You’ve no control of that. Or [they can] go through what can be quite a long process to become directly authorised. It’s costly. Insurers won’t give agencies to new brokers. So, for me to turn around and go ‘we’ve got 300 agencies I can offer you as a broker to go direct to Aviva on day one’ – it’s a no brainer.”

Cheesbrough describes her work to bring Movo Partnership to fruition as being “a one woman crusade for independent broking”.

She says: “[I] just wanted to give people the chance to be able to set up an independent broker in their local community, become their critical friends. That, for me, is still a passion today.

“To be able to do that through the AR side of it [is] so much easier and quicker – we created this model that just didn’t exist. So, appointed representatives deal directly with insurers. No one had done that.”

The year ahead

Movo Partnership has come a long way since these beginnings and etching its niche in the AR marketplace.

Cheesbrough admits that her initial business plan predicted onboarding a maximum of 20 AR brokers to the network in four years – however Movo Partnership took on 27 during the Covid-19 pandemic alone and now boasts over 100 member firms.

As well as expanding the network’s membership, another arm of Movo Group – Movo Investment Group – started undertaking more M&A activity around 2022. Its purchases included, for example, commercial brokers Chiltern Insurance Group, FLS General and Kidd Insurance in West Lothian.

Cheesbrough says Movo Group will be undertaking more acquisitions like these as part of its longer-term strategy.

She explains: “I’d like us to be in a position where we could buy in to some more of our brokers and be their succession plan. That feels like an obvious next step and we’re doing that already, but [this is] something that I’d really like to focus on because that gives you long-term benefits.”

To firepower this ambition, Movo Group secured investment from Australia-based AUB Group in August 2024 – the firm has an 80% stake in Movo Group.

Cheesbrough initially started looking for an investment partner in late 2023, carefully researching a backer that “could essentially come in [and] leave me alone to get on with it”.

She confesses that the idea of leaning in to a typical UK-based broker consolidator left her feeling cold.

“The thought of going in [to] some of the businesses out there that have bought networks or brokers was my idea of hell,” Cheesbrough admits.

“Essentially, I’ve been working against them. I’ve been waiting for [them to buy] businesses, waiting for the people to fall out of it. They weren’t happy and then we were giving them the opportunity [to set up an AR]. So, to go and join that just felt completely wrong to me.

“We then met AUB Group in April 2024 and just instantly knew [it was] going to give us what we needed.”

Alongside investing in brokers, Movo Partnership has just launched a content library for its members (April 2026), available via the network’s intranet and Acturis. With the ability to be broker branded, this content covers subject areas like cyber insurance and using gap analysis in soft market conditions.

This content will be delivered alongside the existing podcasts and webinars that Movo Partnership already produces and will support the work of its Movo Academy. This launched in 2023 and provides information on subjects such as how to be tax efficient and emerging risks.

Another focus for 2026 is bedding in new staff, Cheesbrough says. At the time of writing, Cheesbrough was recruiting for a learning and development specialist and a power business information data analyst, to build useful dashboards that support ARs’ broking. When Insurance Times interviewed Cheesbrough, she was handling a total of around 16 new starters or job vacancies.

“The to do list is to embed the new staff and the new services,” she says.

“Movo will continue to evolve. It will continue to grow, but we’ve got to invest and grow the brokers’ businesses and grow the impact that we’re having on the industry overall. We’ve got a real responsibility for that. That’s really important to me.”

Forging a legacy

Cheesbrough’s passion is undeniable and although her career trajectory – from initially wanting to be a lawyer, through to nursing, retail fragrance, insurance and now broker networks – has been far from linear, she is adamant that she is exactly where she wants to be.

“I love fixing things and it goes back to wanting to help all the time. My first career was [as] a nurse, so it’s very much about caring, supporting and helping,” she says.

“Brokers will ring day and night – ‘oh this has happened, what do I do?’ Breathe, go back to the beginning. We’re going to find a solution because there’s nothing that isn’t solvable.”

That Movo Partnership therefore reflects Cheesbrough’s values and culture is important to her – a huge chunk of her career has centred around shaping the network and she wants it “to be my legacy” in the insurance industry.

She continues: “When I finally do decide to go – and I’m sure I’ve got a shelf life, Movo will need a freshen up at some point – I want to look back and go ‘wow, look at what I created’.”