Beazley chair to leave business ‘stronger with an exciting future’

Specialist Lloyd's re/insurer  Beazley’s chair has decided to stand down from the board to take up the position of chair of the Court of the Bank of England.

David Roberts (pictured) will be leaving the re/insurer in autumn 2022.

Roberts has held various senior management and board level positions at organisations including Nationwide, Barclays and Lloyds Banking Group, among others. He also serves as vice chairman of NHS England.

Beazley said the search for a replacement board chair is underway. In the event that a new chair is not in post at the time of Roberts' departure, Christine LaSala, a senior independent director, will chair the board and the nomination on an interim basis.

Bob Stuchbery will act as interim senior independent director, and Nicola Hodson will act as interim chair of the remuneration committee.

When a chair is appointed, the directors will resume their usual responsibilities.

LaSala said: "I would like to thank David Roberts for the important role he has played at Beazley over the past five years, most notably as we faced the challenges of COVID-19 and the transformation of our executive management team.

"In particular, the board would like to thank David for the leadership he has shown in improving diversity and inclusion at  Beazley. He leaves us a stronger business with an exciting future.

"As a business focused on risk management and insurance, we are committed to providing stability and continuity to all our stakeholders. We are now embarking on a process of selecting a successor and we will provide an update in due course."

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