A guide to this week's movements in the insurance industry
Broker
Keelan Westall
Ben Wright has been appointed as manager of Keelan Westall's key client unit. Prior to joining the company, Wright spent 11 years at Royal & SunAlliance, most recently as business manager for its property investors operation.
SyNerGy
SyNerGy has appointed Lee Bennett to its London office to assist in the continued servicing of its London-based clients.
Bennett brings with him considerable London market experience, having previously worked for NMB Brokers.
Insurer
Beazley
Lionel Béjean has joined Beazley's architects and engineers E&O under-writing team, based in Washington, US.
Béjean previously worked for Marsh, managing the Marsh Center of Excellence for Architects and Engineers. Prior to that, he was vice-president of national accounts for Victor O Schinnerer & Company.
Brit
Lorraine Denny has been appointed HR director at Brit Insurance Holdings
Denny joins the company after six years at Alea Group, where she was senior vice-president, global head of HR. Prior to that, she was human resources manager at Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette.
Denny replaces George O'Donnell, who will be stepping down as he approaches his retirement.
Cardif Pinnacle
Andy Swain has been appointed as chief commercial officer at Cardif Pinnacle, with additional responsibility as executive director for the group's sales and marketing function.
Swain previously owned his own company, First Solutions, having built a career encompassing general insurance, at Pat Ryan & Associates, Ryan Insurance, Lombard Dealer Services, London General Holdings and Aon Resource Group.
Goodhealth Worldwide
Peter Spencer has been appointed as compliance and legal director at Goodhealth Worldwide.
Spencer brings more than 15 years' experience in the general insurance market, of which six have been as a regulator with Lloyd's. Most recently he was compliance officer for Rattner Mackenzie.
Legal & General
Patricia Matthews has joined Legal & General as head of sales for HealthCare business.
Matthews previously worked for Standard Life Healthcare, and is now responsible for the future development of business relationships with advisers across the UK for L&G's new HealthCare business.
London & European
Harcharan Lidher has been appointed as claims handler at London & European.
Lidher joins the company from Zurich, where he spent four years as a liability claims handler.
SLE Worldwide
Jay Thacker has been appointed as personal accident underwriting manager at SLE Worldwide.
Thacker joins SLE from Chubb Insurance, where he was a senior personal accident development underwriter.
NFU Mutual
NFU Mutual has appointed Mark Tinsley as a non-executive director.
Tinsley is managing director of PC Tinsley, which farms 600 hectares near Spalding, South Lincolnshire, as well as being non-executive chairman of Nene Potatoes, chairman of the Oxford Farming Conference Council and a director of Holbeach Marsh Co-operative and Winters Lane Storage.
Congregational
Congregational & General Insurance has appointed Harry Driver as a non-executive director.
Driver was previously director of insurance risk at Royal & SunAlliance, progressing from director of underwriting, claims and reinsurance.
Other
LeadX
Adele Dawson has been appointed operations manager at customer lead trading platform, LeadX.
Dawson has previously worked at Royal & SunAlliance and Primary Insurance Group.
The company has also recruited Sarah Devlin, a former strategic relationship manager for em-financial, and Rob Warrington, who will be taking on the role of contact centre manager.
Profile
M4 Underwriting
Graeme Sutton has been appointed sales and marketing director of the newly-formed commercial insurance underwriter M4 Underwriting, which specialises in mid-market commercial combined and motor fleet business.
Sutton has more than 20 years' industry experience, having previously held senior sales and marketing positions at Independent and Fusion Insurance.
Managing director Don Oakley said: "We are fortunate to attract another top-quality individual to M4 Underwriting. It is less than two months since we began trading and we are already beginning to see the benefits of our traditional underwriting approach.
We hope to be able to announce further appointments in the coming weeks."
Sutton added: "I am delighted to be joining M4 Underwriting at this stage of the company's development. The quality of the team and the commitment to providing a responsive and exclusive underwriting service will be an extremely valuable asset to brokers in the current market."
