Joins motor insurer in January
Aviva’s outgoing broker performance director Sam Hudson has been drafted in to lead a turnaround of motor specialist Equity Insurance.
He will join as commercial director in early January and report into chief executive Ian Parker. His responsibilities will include marketing, distribution and business development.
Equity has more than a million policyholders and includes Lloyd’s syndicate Equity Red Star.
Last month it completed an exit from broking as part of a two-year turnaround plan to return to profitability after several years of losses. It will focus exclusively on motor insurance which will be sold only by brokers.
Parker said: “Sam’s appointment is essential in our turnaround, as we look to re-establish Equity as the key market for brokers for motor risks.
“His first task will be to re-assess and develop all our market propositions and then take them to market. The support we have had from brokers through the past few years has been fantastic, but we need to do more to explain to the broader market just exactly what we do. We still have some way to go to convey our ‘motor only, broker only’ strategy.”
Hudson said: “I’m really excited to be joining Equity at this point in their transformation. It’s a proud brand with a great history, and Ian and the management team have an ambitious and challenging plan to invest and develop it over the coming years. I’ve been very privileged to work alongside great people at Aviva over the past nine years, but the attraction for me of being part of the Equity journey is incredibly strong, and something that I really wanted to do. I’m looking forward to working with them, and Equity’s broker base to build something unique and lasting.”
Aviva intermediary and partnership director Phil Bayles said Aviva had a “strong internal pool” of candidates and hoped to announce Hudson’s replacement in the coming weeks.
Equity was bought by Aquiline Capital from IAG in April. It made a £37.4m loss in the year to 30 June 2012.
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