Lee Mooney: Markel UK preparing for ‘next chapter’ after internal restructure

In April 2026, Markel UK managing director Lee Mooney rolled up his sleeves and undertook an internal restructure that aimed to eliminate business siloes, boost staff collaboration and provide a streamlined profit and loss (P&L) structure – all in support of the insurer’s overarching five-year Ambition 2030 strategy.

Designed to maintain Markel UK’s customer facing shop window by homing in on internal “structural changes”, Mooney carefully crafted a series of new divisions to underpin operations and provide “a really simple business” for UK general insurance (UKGI) to engage with.

This includes a new commercial lines division – led by divisional director Jo Sykes and encompassing the insurer’s work with MGAs, broker schemes and facilities, eTrading and open market trading – a “unique” customer solutions division to offer “pre- and post-loss advice and risk mitigation under one umbrella”, as well as a direct and partnerships division, which houses Markel UK’s direct to consumer style model for micro SMEs and “non-advisory touch business”.

Speaking exclusively to Insurance Times shortly after the restructure’s implementation, Mooney emphasises that although the divisional reshuffle has been a long time in the planning pipeline, “the hard work starts now” in terms of reaping business benefits from the changes.

He continues: “We do not obsess about premium, we obsess about customer journeys and making sure our people have the best tools and the best ability to succeed. But the way we were set up before probably wasn’t the right foundation.

“We had lots of fantastic businesses that were [operating as] individual divisions, not collaborating together [for the] greater good. So, we’ve made some changes.

“We’ve got a really simple business now that enables us to build on the foundations that we’ve got and grow the business as we get to 2030.

“[Now,] it’s how do we take those new propositions, that new way of trading to market and making sure that brokers feel the depth of Markel?

“It’s a very soft market [right now] and I know people are saying it’s hard, it’s difficult – but I see it as a fantastic opportunity for us to [showcase] what this industry is about. Be entrepreneurial, be nimble, put different solutions on the table, but make sure we can touch the customers and give them solutions when they need it.

“No longer just that binary relationship of get the volume through and not really obsess around what insureds are actually buying – [with Markel UK,] they’re buying a proposition, they’re buying a service, they’re buying a solution.”

Double digit growth

Mooney’s focus on internal spring cleaning is closely aligned to Markel UK’s participation in its parent company’s growth strategy.

With Markel International striving to improve its global gross written premium (GWP) from $2.5bn (£1.9bn) to $5bn (£3.8bn) in the five years to 2030, Markel UK responded by launching its associated five pillar growth plan, Ambition 2030, in March 2025 – a few months prior to Mooney’s appointment at the firm.

Devised by Sykes, this approach pulls on levers such as eTrading, schemes, new product development, regional footprint improvements and artificial intelligence (AI) use cases in a bid to generate business growth and profit.

The key mantra underpinning this strategic effort from Markel International and Markel UK is the desire to double the size of the business. Mooney confirms that in 2025 and Q1 2026, Markel UK achieved “double digit growth” financially.

However, he describes GWP as being a “vanity barometer” of growth. For him, more attention should be on customer volume.

He says: “For us, it’s about making sure that we’re increasing our customer volumes. Premiums [are] probably the vanity barometer.

“For me, it’s about how many more customers can we bring through the door and give them those solutions – and we’re double digit growth in terms of our customer volumes as well. So, we are growing at the right trajectory.

“We’re not blowing the socks off [the rate of growth] because we want to make sure we’ve got solutions that are sustainable and can stick. And we’re making sure that we can partner with brokers, MGAs [and] facilities that have the right traits and behaviours because we will never be a generalist, we will never be a composite.

“We will be an insurer that gives specialist advice every time.”

Pinpointing products

Of the five pillars within Ambition 2030, “one of the number one priorities” for Mooney has been expanding Markel UK’s product set to enable the insurer to become more relevant for broker partners and obtain a greater “share of wallet” from their portfolios – as well as build up Markel UK’s specialist capabilities where it may have been previously lacking.

“We can only talk to about 2% to 3% of a broker’s share of wallet, so we’re only relevant in certain areas,” Mooney explains. “We needed to increase that point of relevance by putting more products on the shelf in a specialist flavour, to make sure that we can compete with other specialist insurers.

“We’re not here to just put products on the shelf in a volume, composite, vanilla way. We’re here to make sure we can put sector specific solutions on the table and keep that specialist tag. A lot of people [think that because] I’ve come [to Markel UK] from my previous retail, commercial composite background, that we’re going to put more vanilla type products on the shelf. It’s absolutely not that.”

Providing some examples of this specialist flavour, Mooney highlights that Markel UK is launching a “critical” cyber product in Q3 this year, which will be swiftly followed by a cargo proposition – after appointing a new head of cargo in April 2026, Mooney expects this product to launch in late Q3 to Q4 2026.

Other products on the horizon include medical malpractice, healthcare and tourism.

Markel UK’s new product launches will be available on both Acturis and the open market, Mooney confirms, with the insurer also striving to build out its regional footprint and presence to better support brokers regardless of trading route.

For Mooney, this product timetable is slower than he first envisioned after joining Markel UK in June 2025 – however, he believes this is the right call for the business to ensure longevity.

He explains: “If I reflect back a bit, we weren’t quite ready to launch products with solutions in the right way [when we started this piece of work], so we’re taking a little bit of time to make sure we get it right.

“One of the absolute non-negotiables that we will do is when we launch a product [in] a sector, we’re in it. We’re not going to go in and out and test the water. We’re in it for the long haul and that’s about having sustainability in what we do.

“So, it’s taken us a little bit [of] time to make sure that the products are fit for purpose, the propositions meet the brokers’ and customers’ needs, but also that we’re ahead of the pack in terms of that advisory, specialist flavour.”

Being a ‘solutions player’

For Mooney, his first year at the helm of Markel UK has passed incredibly quickly – and been quite the rollercoaster.

He tells Insurance Times: “It’s been exciting, it’s been interesting. We’ve had to challenge ourselves [and] really look at habitual ways of working. It’s been exceptionally challenging. It’s been exceptionally rewarding, but we’re only just starting.

“I know it’s been a year, but we’ve done so much behind the scenes to make sure that this business, this next chapter, is absolutely fit for purpose and we’ve [spent] so much time self-reflecting on ourselves as leaders. But I’m so excited about the future ahead.

“We have a very entrepreneurial, innovative business that we just need to tell more people about. I’m so passionate about the success that we’ll have along the way.”

Mooney calls out for brokers to be “curious” about the new look Markel UK under his leadership, reflecting his own initial surprise upon joining the business at what he feels is the breadth and depth of the insurer’s offering.

He says: “I want brokers to be curious. I want brokers to really want to understand the inner depth of Markel, about what our fantastic proposition is, because we are not a product player – we’re a solutions player and we operate in that specialist market.

“When we step forward, we blow the market completely out of the water and we provide solutions for our customers which are market-leading, [making] sure they can retain their customers [in turn]. We just need to sell that more and be prouder about [what] we’re about.”