Lloyd’s Market Association boosts female leadership in bid to increase diversity

The  Lloyd’s Market Association (LMA) has appointed six new board members to support the market in areas of digital trading, underwriting leadership, strategy, corporate development, data analysis and syndicate management.

Following these appointments, the number of female LMA board members has almost doubled to seven, bringing the LMA nearer to realising its ambition, set out in May this year, for at least 30 percent of its board members to be female and/or from an ethnic minority by the end of 2023.

The new board members are Hugh Brennan, CEO of RenaissanceRe Syndicate Management; Dominick Hoare, Group CUO of Munich Re Syndicate; Kate Markham, CEO of London Market at Hiscox; Chris Smelt, executive director of Managing Agency Partners; Rachel Turk, head of corporate development at Beazley; and Sarah Willmont, joint active underwriter at Canopius.

The association said each of these executives brings deep expertise across a broad range of disciplines.

LMA chief executive Sheila Cameron (pictured) remarked: “It gives me great pleasure to welcome our highly-regarded and exceptionally capable new members, who bring a wealth of expertise that will be invaluable to the LMA and the wider market.

“We are also delighted that, with these appointments, the LMA is closing in on its diversity target, with more than a quarter of our board now made up of women. Today’s announcement marks a further important step toward achieving a diverse board, in support of broader efforts to attain greater diversity at a market level, and we remain determined to reach our target by the end of 2023.”

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