Willis Group Holdings has appointed Mike Rush, Simon Taylor as two new regional managing directors for Willis Networks, the global insurance broker’s alliance with local, independent brokers in the UK.
Rush will be responsible for Willis Networks in Scotland, Northern England and Northern Ireland, while Taylor will look after Central and Southern England and Wales. Both will report to Phil Scarrett, managing director, Willis Networks.
Rush and Taylor will be based in Preston and London respectively and will both work with members of the Willis Commercial Network (WCN), which represents brokers placing annual premiums of between £3m and £40m, and Willis N2, which represents smaller community brokers with up to £3 million in annual premium placements.
Rush has more than 30 years of insurance industry experience and he will join Willis from the Broker Network Group where he was regional director for Southern England.
Taylor’s most recent role was as sales and marketing director for Primary General, an underwriting company. Before that he spent five years at NIG, the National Insurance and Guarantee.
In addition, Willis Networks has also promoted Bernard Farrell from regional managing director for Scotland, Northern England and Northern Ireland to overall sales director, while further increasing its regional presence with the appointments of Simon Clegg and Jayne Bolton as business development manager and regional operations manager respectively.
Willis Networks also appointed Andrew Tilley as online marketing manager to support its members in growing their online distribution and marketing channels.
Willis Networks managing director Phil Scarrett, the regional managing directors work closely with Network members to help them grow organically and by acquisition, and to ensure that they receive the full benefit of Willis’ wide ranging training and marketing support and access to the market.