Pen Underwriting unveils leadership change

Pen Underwriting has named Matthew Lucas to the role of chief operating officer (COO), taking over from Michelle Bree who is moving to Gallagher’s broking division.

Lucas will also join the board of Pen Underwriting.

Lucas is currently COO of Gallagher Benefit Services UK (GBS UK) – the specialist employee benefit, wealth management, communications and HR consultancy arm of Gallagher, Pen Underwriting’s parent company. Prior to joining the company, he held a number of senior roles at Brown Shipley Private Bank, Barclays Wealth and Capita SIP Services, where he led large-scale transformation initiatives and operations teams.

In his new role,  Matthew will be responsible for Pen's operational capabilities and scalability to deliver on its strategic growth ambitions.

Tom Downey, CEO of Pen Underwriting, said: “Joining us as he is from GBS UK, Matthew is a great fit for Pen bringing shared values as well as a broad and impressive track record in senior leadership experience across business, project, operational and stakeholder management. He’ll be able to hit the ground running at this crucial juncture for Pen and Matthew’s background in the banking side of financial services will undoubtedly bring fresh ideas and energy to delivering operational excellence as we look to deliver on our new vision.”

Lucas said: “I’m excited to be joining Pen as it embarks on this next ambitious phase and was attracted by the real sense of cultural camaraderie – one strong team, representing a diverse and specialist business that’s all pulling together in a unified direction. Michelle has laid some excellent operational foundations upon which I’m looking forward to building.”

Downey added: “Michelle has been an incredible asset to our business from when she joined us at the very beginning of our journey five years ago. Instrumental in the creation of Pen, a tremendous colleague and highly talented individual, Michelle will be much missed but is taking up the fantastic opportunity as COO for the UK Retail broking business which will support her continued career development within the group, and we wish her all the very best.”