Along with Joe Plumeri, Chairman and CEO of Willis Group, Mr Millwater will also assume Mr Wright’s previous duties as Group Chief Operating Officer.

The new CEO of Willis International joined the brokerage in 2008. As a member of the Willis Executive Committee, he has worked closely with Mr Plumeri and Mr Millwater and the leaders of each of the company’s business units to set and execute strategy, drive growth and streamline operations.

He joined Willis with over 20 years of international experience in the insurance and financial services industries.

Willis said he will work closely with Sarah Turvill, who will remain Chairman of Willis International, to help strengthen and grow the business unit.

Mr Plumeri said that Mr Wright’s appointment signalled a ‘new era of opportunity’ for Willis in parts of the world where its growth potential is strongest.

“Tim has always been a force for change at Willis, first by driving the Shaping Our Future programme, which transformed Willis from the inside out, and then leading development of The Willis Cause, which is reorienting Willis around the client from the outside in,” Mr Plumeri said.

“Reflecting our confidence in Tim, we’ve assigned him progressively more responsibility each year. I am very pleased that Tim will bring his leadership skills to Willis International, a business unit that will bring further opportunity for Willis and is a cornerstone of our future growth plans,” he added.

Willis appoints new CEOs of Latin America and UK and Ireland operations

Willis has appointed Luis Maurette as Regional Chief Executive Officer of its Latin American operations, where he will report to the new CEO of Willis International Tim Wright [see story above].

The broker has also announced the appointment of Daniel Wilkinson as CEO, Willis United Kingdom & Ireland (WUKI), effective immediately, and named Brendan McCafferty as President of WUKI.

Mr Maurette joins Willis from Liberty Seguros Brazil, Liberty Mutual Insurance Company’s Brazilian operation, where he served as president and CEO for the last 10 years.

Originally from Argentina, he previously worked for 14 years at Cigna International and for over 10 years at leading financial services organisations across Latin America.

Commenting on the growth potential of Latin America for Willis International, Mr Wright said, “The success of our group is predicated on the consistent delivery of The Willis Cause in every single corner of the world in which we operate. Latin America is such an integral part of our international growth strategy that it was essential to have a leader of Luis’ calibre to drive positive change and exceed the expectations of our clients there.”

Mr Maurette’s appointment follows another senior Willis hire in Latin America when Seth Peller was named CEO of Willis Argentina in September.

In the UK Mr Wilkinson has been with Willis for 16 years and is the longest-serving member of the WUKI executive team.

After starting his career at a Lloyd’s Marine syndicate, Mr Wilkinson spent seven years broking for Miller Insurance and Fenchurch, before joining Willis in 1995. For the last five years he has built up the Corporate, Credit, Insolvency and Private Finance Initiative (PFI) units of WUKI.

Mr McCafferty is currently Managing Director of WUKI’s Commercial and Network businesses and his latest role is a newly created position.

He has been at Willis for over three years and was initially responsible for the creation of Willis Underwriting Programmes prior to leading the Commercial business unit.

Before coming to Willis, he was Finance Director for RSA’s UK Commercial division.

QBE launches Environmental Impairment Liability product

QBE has announced the creation of a new team to launch an Environmental Impairment Liability (EIL) product.

Using both Lloyd’s and Company paper, the EIL product will be offered on a stand-alone and bolt-on basis with up to $30m coverage per loss.

Wayne Harrington, Portfolio Manager and Ellie Merkin, Assistant Underwriter have joined QBE to create and market the new product.

Mr Harrington joined from ACE, where he helped establish the Environmental Risk product line and most recently held the role of UK & Ireland Manager for Environmental Risk. Prior to that he was a Vice President at ACE Financial Solutions International and held a number of roles at Marsh.

Ms Merkin has over six years’ experience in the contaminated land industry. Before joining QBE she was an Environmental Consultant at Watts Group where she specialised in Phase I Environmental Audits and Phase II intrusive investigation and site remediation.

Prior to that she was an Environmental Engineer at Bureau Veritas and a Contaminated Land Assistant at Bracknell Forest Borough Council.

The team will be further bolstered by the appointment of an additional underwriter before the end of the year.

Zurich appoints new Chief Underwriting Officer for UK

Zurich has appointed Nick Major as Chief Underwriting Officer for its Global Corporate business sector in the UK (GCUK) business area with immediate effect.

He succeeds Mark Platten, who has decided to take a sabbatical for 12 months.

As CUO, he will be responsible for all aspects of underwriting across GCUK.

This includes managing key broker and customer relationships and portfolio management. He will report to Ann Haugh, CEO of GCUK and will be a member of her executive team.

Mr Major began his career in insurance with RSA and joined Zurich in 2003 as a Senior Property Underwriter. In 2007 he was appointed Head of Property for GCUK and in February 2011 was made Head of First Party Risk and interim CUO.

Chartis launches new UK company website

Chartis Insurance UK Limited today launched its new UK website that is designed to offer improved access to information for a broad range of potential users including risk managers and brokers.

Phillip McGough, e-Business Manager at Chartis Insurance UK Limited said: “We recognised that visitors to our website not only want different information but also have different starting points, so we completely changed the site so that it offers a more intuitive or natural way to find what they are looking for.”

Visitors to the site will find content arranged by industry, product and by segments such as multinational companies, large organisations and SMEs.

“Navigation is an important aspect of any website but so too is content. We have made every effort to beef up the information on the site with a heavy emphasis on informing and educating, particularly on issues such as prevention tools, loss control and risk reduction insights. Again the objective has been to point users at content relevant to them in written, graphic or video form, as opposed to presenting a mass of information and expecting them to pick out what they need,” continued Mr McGough.

“The new UK site is the first delivered under a major global redesign project to enhance Chartis’ web presence worldwide. We believe we have created a best of breed platform that offers new ways to navigate our site with the emphasis on allowing information to be accessed in lots of different ways,” he concluded.

You can access the new site at www.chartisinsurance.com/uk.

Chartis Insurance UK Limited has also set up a Twitter account—ChartisUKnews—as an alternative communication tool to inform followers about initiatives and activities in which the company is involved.

AM Best’s Shipperlee joins Litmus Analysis

Insurance consultancy firm Litmus Analysis has appointed former Standard and Poor’s and AM Best Executive Stuart Shipperlee as a Partner.

In the role he will be involved in all key aspects of Litmus’ services, including ratings advice, insurance market security and training. In addition, he will work on developing techniques to improve the transparency and efficiency of insurance markets.

Prior to joining Litmus Analysis, Mr Shipperlee was Global Head of Insurance Products at Standard & Poor’s.

From 2000–2005, Mr Shipperlee headed up A.M. Best’s EMEA operations and was also a member of the agency’s Global Corporate Rating Committee.

“There are, of course, strong views on ratings and rating agencies, but their influence in the insurance industry is undeniable. Therefore, maximising the market’s understanding of their role is vital for all concerned. I’m delighted to be joining Litmus and its very talented team to help facilitate this greater understanding and to build on what is already an impressive client list and range of offerings,” said Mr Shipperlee.

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