Aston Lark creates new integration director role

Aston Lark, the chartered insurance broker backed by Goldman Sachs, has created a new role of integration director, with responsibility for overseeing the successful integration of all of  Aston Lark’s acquisitions.

Bethan Jones steps into the new role while continuing with other responsibilities within the group. Jones started her insurance career as a broker at Thomas Carroll in 2004 where she gained chartered broker status before moving into a group operations role. A family relocation from Wales to Kent in 2017 created the opportunity for her to join Aston Scott prior to its merger with Lark Group.

Joining the board in 2019, Jones provides leadership across Aston Lark’s Project Office and Applications teams and more recently accelerated its data and analytics capability. While retaining this oversight, she will now formally take full responsibility for the integration of acquisitions across the group.

Peter Blanc, Aston Lark Group CEO, said: “It won’t have escaped anyone’s notice that Aston Lark has been rather busy on the acquisition front over the last couple of years. We are determined to become the UK and Ireland’s most trusted Chartered Insurance Broker and each acquisition that we make helps to make us stronger as a business. It is however absolutely vital that we don’t just ‘collect brokers’ but instead carefully plan and integrate each acquisition so that it truly feels part of Aston Lark and enables both the vendors and the rest of Aston Lark to benefit fully from joining forces.

“Bethan has been with Aston Lark for almost four years and is our ‘go to’ expert for all things operational. As a Chartered insurance broker in her own right, Bethan has a completely unique skillset – she understands insurance broking but also truly understands systems, data, MI and the importance of integration. We are therefore delighted to announce that we have promoted Bethan into this role and her appointment should give any companies that are thinking of joining forces with Aston Lark the confidence that they are in very safe hands.”

Jones added: “I am delighted to take on the role of integration director for the group. I am incredibly passionate about ensuring all parties have a successful outcome following an acquisition and I strive to ensure decisions are made with vendors ahead of the deal completion so there are no surprises.

“In growing at our current pace, successful integration is vital to ensure we retain operational cohesion across the group, and I am privileged to work with an incredibly supportive executive board at Aston Lark that share my passion for doing things the right way.”

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