Broker-only insurer appoints two regional sales heads and 11 senior business development managers

Dave Parry, director of sales and distribution at NIG

NIG’s sales and distribution director Dave Parry is to leave the business as part of cuts to Direct Line Group’s senior management team.

At the same time, the company has named two new regional sales heads and will appoint 11 senior business development managers to add to an existing team of 16. It will also appoint three e-trading consultants.

Direct Line Group announced this morning it was cutting 70 senior management positions in the second phase of its £100m cost-cutting initiative.

Following the departure of Parry, key accounts head Chris Woollam will report directly to NIG managing director Jon Greenwood.

Non-key accounts will be managed by two internally appointed regional sales directors. Steve Scott will be responsible for the north of England and Alistair Body for the south.

The sales directors will be supported by 11 new senior business development managers, taking the total number of senior business development managers to 27.

Last week, Insurance Times reported that NIG was considering cutting up to 15 broker-facing business development managers, but was compensating by hiring more senior business development managers.

The cuts are part of Direct Line Group’s push to achieve £100m of gross annual cost savings by 2014.

Commenting on the changes to NIG, Greenwood said: “Today’s announcement recognises the changing commercial market and confirms the reorganisation of our broker-facing team. We are in the process of contacting our brokers to discuss this with them directly. This is a strategic investment in the quality of our people, our products and service delivery to our broker partners.”