Market moves: No rest for recruitment

There was no holiday break when it came to market moves. From management changes at Brightside to Gary Duggan leaving Paymentshield, there was no shortage of news involving personnel movements. Gallagher and Griffiths & Armour picked up staff from Towergate, while Bluefin focused on making regional changes and Carole Nash saw the return of Phil Evans. On the insurer side, QBE saw changes both in its claims team and its international casualty team. Axa made a double appointment in a regional push and Rural Insurance opened a new office in Darlington, hiring six from Towergate-owned BIB in the process. Aviva also made a pair of appointments and Travelers hired a new product manager to its financial institutions team. All in all, a busy run-up to Christmas and an equally packed start to 2015.

Brokers 

Several changes have been made within Brightside Group (see Market focus below). Paul Williams is leaving the company after serving as its CEO since 2013 and coming in from Arthur J Gallagher to take over his role is Andrew Wallin. Des O’Connor also joins the group from Gallagher, taking on the role of group commercial director.

Speaking of Gallagher, the broker recently opened a new office in Cornwall and recruited four new employees, Carl Jolly and Chris Spencer as senior account