Gallagher

About Gallagher

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. and its subsidiaries provide insurance brokerage, consulting, and third-party claims settlement and administration services to entities around the world. The firm is the world’s third-largest insurance brokerage and risk management company based on revenues. Its growth has come in large part through acquisitions, including Willis Re and AssuredPartners, the latter of which stands as the largest broking acquisition in industry history.

Its expertise spans multiple industries and risk categories, ranging from automotive and healthcare to energy and marine, and from management liability and property to cyber and fine arts. The company also offers benefits and HR consulting, captives and alternative risk transfer, and reinsurance.

It trades primarily under the Gallagher brand. Major subsidiaries include Gallagher Re, its global reinsurance division; Gallagher Bassett, which provides claims management and risk control services to corporations, insurance carriers, brokers, and public entities worldwide; Risk Placement Services, its US wholesale arm; Alesco, its UK wholesale division; Pen Underwriting, an MGA operating in the UK, Ireland, and Europe; and Artex, which specialises in alternative risk solutions.

The company is listed on the NYSE under the symbol AJG but continues to be run by the family that founded the business in Chicago in 1927. Its founder, Arthur Gallagher, was succeeded by his son, Patrick Gallagher, who leads the business today. The firm has more than 1,000 offices worldwide, with significant workforces in North America, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, along with a large back-office presence in India. It is one of the largest Lloyd’s of London brokers in the UK and has 1,300 risk specialists in its specialty division handling complex global risks.

New name, new chapter

While celebrating its 90th anniversary in 2017, the company announced a rebranding from Arthur J. Gallagher to just Gallagher, though the parent company’s name continues to be Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. In line with the rebranding, the brokerage giant revealed a new logo that replaced the design that had been used since the 1960s.

“The past five years have been transformational for our company. More than 300 merger partners have joined the organisation, which has grown to 26,000 employees across 34 countries,” said Chris Mead, chief marketing officer for Gallagher. “This growth presents us with an enormous opportunity to establish a more unified, compelling retail brand that differentiates us in the marketplace and creates opportunities for the future.”

Shortening the name was also intended to reflect the way in which many clients already referred to the company.

90 years in the making

After opening the doors to his own agency, the founder continued to expand the company in the 1930s, hiring new producers and pioneering the concept of risk management while also focusing on commercial insurance. After the Second World War, his three sons returned from their service in the US Navy and joined the company, foreshadowing the incoming generation of leaders.

Fast forward to the 1970s, the firm established its international presence when it co-founded Lloyd’s broker Gallagher, Hinton & Vereker Ltd. in London. In 1975, it set up an office in Bermuda and later in the year, its team wrote its first self-funded employee benefits plan. Three years later, revenues reached US$25 million, and, in 1984, the company went public with an initial common stock offering. In 1987, it listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol AJG.

The 1990s saw the firm forming a domestic wholesale brokerage division and establishing a joint venture in Australia. On its 75th anniversary, the company hit US$1 billion in revenues and was named one of Fortune’s 1000 largest companies.

A frequent acquirer

Gallagher has completed more than 350 acquisitions globally over the ten years from 2016 to 2026, averaging roughly 30 to 45 M&A transactions per year. More than 150 of its total historical acquisitions have taken place since 2020.

Values inside the organisation

The company’s workplace culture is defined by The Gallagher Way, a set of 25 shared values built around empathy, teamwork, and what it describes as a family-like atmosphere across its global operations. Core elements include:

• No second-class citizens: every role within the company is treated as important
• Empathy as strength: employees are expected to treat others with empathy and professional courtesy
• Run to problems: employees are encouraged to address challenges directly rather than avoid them
• Earned respect: leadership and respect are expected to be earned through actions rather than granted by title
• Shared support: leaders are expected to support sales, marketing, and client-facing teams rather than simply manage them

Pat Gallagher has said this is the most important factor in the success or failure of any organisation, and has described it as the company’s greatest business achievement.

The firm has received several external awards for its workplace culture. In 2025, it was named one of the Best Places to Work for Disability Inclusion by the Disability:IN Disability Index in the US and UK for the second time. It also received an Equality 100 rating from the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index 2025, marking the sixth consecutive year it earned the top score, and was named one of TIME’s World’s Best Companies of 2025.

Gallagher in the industry

The company has been recognised in Insurance Business’ 2026 Top Retail Brokers list, an annual ranking of retail insurance professionals generating at least $1 million in commission revenue. One of its senior healthcare practice directors made the 2026 list and earned the Platinum Retail Broker designation, given to those generating more than $4 million in commission revenue. In the report, they spoke about the value of specialising in a single risk class rather than working across multiple lines.

Attracting new talent

J. Patrick Gallagher, Jr., chairman, president and CEO of Gallagher, has called insurance “the greatest business on Earth” and has said he wants young people to know the sector offers strong career paths. The Gallagher Summer Internship Program (GSIP) is a paid, nine-week program that has run since 1965, introducing more than 500 university students annually to career paths in corporate risk and client management.

“The GSIP has been running for 52 years and it still revolves around my grandfather’s mantra that insurance is the greatest business on the planet,” said Gallagher, Jr., himself a GSIP intern back in 1972. “Over the years, we’ve developed a unique method of bringing young people into the insurance industry, focusing on whether they have the right personality, skills and drive to be successful in the industry. We don’t just go for business majors or risk management majors. It’s really about personality and whether we think they would enjoy the industry.”

With the average age of the insurance industry professional falling between 50 and 55 years old, getting younger recruits onboard is key to filling a talent gap looming over the industry.

“One point that seems to resonate with these young folks is that insurance really is there to help people and put people’s lives back together,” Gallagher, Jr. told Insurance Business. “I was in New Orleans seven days after Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005. It looked like an atom bomb had gone off. Look at New Orleans now. The federal government didn’t put that city back together; the insurance industry did.

“When we’re standing outside a burned-down home, we can’t get the valuable photographs back for the homeowner, but we can rebuild the house and help them with living expenses during that process. We help people whose lives have been turned upside down. That message really hits home with the interns.”