Westall co-founder launches new broker

Keelan Westall co-founder Alan Westall has returned to the insurance industry with a new commercial property insurance brokerage called Property Insurance Initiatives (PII).

Westall has teamed up with former Cadogan Keelan Westall (CKW) managing director Brett Sainty to launch PII and while the company is still in the early stages of development several former CKW staff are believed to be joining Westall’s new venture in the near future. Two non-executive directors have also been appointed this month.

Westall sold his Keelan Westall to Erinaceous Group in 2006, having founded the company 35 years earlier. Two years later, Erinaceous was forced into administration and the firm became the subject of a bank backed rescue by Barbon.

Westall was lured back to help CKW, as it had become, in July last year, to help return it to profitability by its then managing director Brett Sainty. However, by November 2011, both men had left the company.

Westall said it was “several months” before he and Sainty began to explore the idea of launching their own commercial real estate insurance brokerage.

“We have huge amount of experience in the property sector and that will be the focus of the new business,” Westall confirmed.