He has spent 35 years working in insurance 

Ecclesiastical has revealed that its UK general insurance managing director John Blundell will retire in 2020 after 35 years in the insurance business.

Blundell will continue to run the business while it seeks a successor and to ensure a smooth handover period.

He said: “I’ve had a wonderful 35 years in insurance but, from a personal perspective, the time is right for me to step away from a day-to-day executive role to pursue other interests and opportunities.

“I’ve really enjoyed my time at Ecclesiastical and I will miss the many people inside and outside the organisation that I’ve had the pleasure of working with.”

Ongoing change 

John_Blundell_Ecclesiastical

John Blundell 

Prior to joining Ecclesiastical, he was deputy chief executive at Covéa – a role he undertook after the sale of Sterling Insurance Group.

Originally, he joined the broker in September 2016 seeing the business through a period of ongoing change. But he started as a graduate trainee at Norwich Union which is now called Aviva, he went on to co-found an insurance start-up called St Andrews Group holding the position of managing director.

He later joined Sterling Insurance Group where he assumed the role of managing director for over a decade, he saw the firm through a successful trade sale to Covéa in 2015.

Overall his career in the insurance industry has spanned 35 years.

Mark Hews, group chief executive of Ecclesiastical, said: “I’d like to thank John for his considerable contribution to Ecclesiastical’s success over the past three years.

“Although we will be sorry to see him depart, he will be leaving the UK general insurance business in great shape, well positioned to take advantage of market opportunities going forward.”