Ed poaches Willis Towers Watson executives for new practice

Reinsurance, wholesale and specialty broker Ed has expanded its professional and executive risks offering with five new appointments.

The new team will be led by Paul Richards as managing director, and includes director James Baird, divisional directors Neal Hughes and Rupert Alabaster, and producer / broker James Faith.

"These appointments exemplify the scale of our ambitions at Ed," said Chris Bonard, CEO of Ed Specialty. "In every line of business we want to bring together the market’s leading talent to complement our existing expertise. Our professional risk offering is a recognised market leader which boasts a number of sector leading businesses within its portfolio.

The professional and executive risks team brings together the new hires and Ed’s professional risk offering led by Mark Lowndes who has been with the company since 2004.

"With these appointments our new professional and executive risks team will be second to none and I am certain that they will quickly establish themselves as the leading providers of solutions for businesses in the financial institutions and professional services sectors and in international financial centres," Bonard commented.

Richards has specialised in financial and professional risk insurance for nearly 20 years as a partner at JLT and senior partner at Glencairn (latterly Willis Group). He led the financial institutions team at Willis Towers Watson’s FINEX division and most recently led sales development as an executive director of their financial lines division before joining Ed.

Besides Richards, Baird, Hughes and Faith also join Ed from Willis Towers Watson.

Baird served as executive director, FINEX most recently leading their specialist wealth and asset manager and offshore financial services team, providing solutions direct to customers and to US financial institutions.

Hughes served as a divisional director of the FINEX division and specialised in the servicing and placement of UK and offshore financial institution and professional clients.

Faith served as a divisional director focusing on servicing financial institutions and professional clients in the FINEX division. Previously Faith serviced private equity clients whilst in a financial public relations firm.

Alabaster joins Ed from BMS where, as group director, professional and financial services he led a team focusing on delegated authority business for specialty lines.

Richards said: "The opportunity to expand our team and offering to clients at Ed is clear. We are combining the broad and deep expertise of the expanded team to deliver personalised client service within Ed’s unique business model. The combination of our people’s knowledge of this specialist area together with Ed’s independence and entrepreneurial approach enables us to offer a genuine alternative to our clients.

"We will grow our cyber capabilities as well as develop our partnerships with other independent retail brokers and Brokerslink members to create opportunities and solutions for their clients. In certain sectors of the insurance market we may be reaching a tipping point, meaning clients in this space will require brokers with the requisite experience, deep market relationships and speed of response to deliver results."

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