Max Carruthers is set to join AXA Commercial as chief operating officer, insurancetimes.co.uk understands.

AXA Commercial chief executive Amanda Blanc has swooped for her former Towergate colleague the day after insurancetimes.co.uk revealed he had left the consolidator.

Carruthers' responsibilities will stretch across AXA Commercial and broking arm Bluefin.

Carruthers had been group operations director and a shareholder in Towergate since 2005 and was a member of the executive management team.

He will join another ex-Towergate colleague, former Powerplace chief executive Matthew Reed, who was snapped up by Blanc to become AXA’s managing director, intermediary and partnerships.

Last week, Bluefin chief trading officer Graham Coates resigned.