Willis Makes Changes in its Reinsurance, Wholesale & Placement Units
Willis Group Holdings has announced a series of leadership appointments in its reinsurance, wholesale and placement divisions. The management changes are “the next phase in the development of Willis Global, a new business unit launched last year that brings together the whole array of specialist expertise within Willis for the benefit of its clients and to drive revenue growth,” said the bulletin.
Willis Global now encompasses Willis Re, Global Specialties, Global Markets, Faber & Dumas, Willis Capital Markets & Advisory, Willis Global Placement, Willis Facultative, Global Solutions and Willis Analytics.
Chairman and CEO Joe Plumeri announced the formation of Willis Global in September 2010 under Group President Grahame Millwater, who added Chairman and CEO of Willis Global to his responsibilities. The announcement included the appointment of industry leader Martin Sullivan to lead Willis Global Solutions to help coordinate Willis’ risk management services to the world’s largest companies.
The Willis Global organization will focus on maximizing the capabilities of the leaders of its global business units, and forming a “tightly coordinated” leadership team.
To further that goal Willis has announced the following leadership changes that are effective immediately:
At Willis Re, Peter Hearn will become Chairman and lead the organization with a focus on driving growth in the business and serving the reinsurance, capital markets and facultative needs of major insurance companies. Management of Willis Re will be augmented by the appointment of Steve Hearn as CEO of Willis Re. Steve Hearn was previously responsible for Faber & Dumas, Global Markets International and Willis Facultative.
Dominic Samengo-Turner will replace Steve Hearn as CEO of Willis’ London Market Wholesale businesses. Samengo-Turner was CEO of Global Placement, an entity formed in 2009 to oversee the Group’s relationships with insurance carriers and its placement capabilities globally. Willis’ London Market Wholesale businesses and its Global Placement capabilities have become progressively more aligned, making this appointment a natural progression of Samengo-Turner’s role.
Alastair Swift will assume Samengo-Turner’s position as CEO of Willis Global Placement. Swift, who joined the Group with the HRH acquisition in 2008, has made an enormous contribution to Willis since his appointment as head of North American Placement (part of the Willis Global Placement function). With that background, Swift’s transition into his new global role will be seamless and will enable Willis to continue to develop this key area of client service delivery.
Millwater commented: “The synergies that exist within the Willis Global organization and our integrated model make this next stage of the evolution not only natural but easy. The businesses in Willis Global offer an awesome array of skills, capabilities and knowledge that our clients, our retail distribution and our third party intermediary partners find increasingly exciting, valuable and unique.”
“The appointments we are announcing today, all from within our own ranks, represent the leadership strength of our team. The strong sense of culture, teamwork and our integrated offering show this as a very logical next step, not only for the Group, but also for the individuals we have appointed. I look forward to leading this united team in partnership with the President and COO of Willis Global, David Margrett.”
Plumeri, explained: “We formed Willis Global to strengthen our Global businesses, together with our enormous pool of intellectual capital and our industry knowledge. These appointments build on this. The combination of Willis Global and our Retail capabilities and distribution, together with the One Flag culture we have developed in Willis, differentiates us in the insurance and reinsurance broking industry. We believe we are now very well positioned to take Willis to the next level of our growth offensive.”
Source: Willis Group Holdings