The former CEO of Wesfarmers insurance broking business, Keith McIvor has accepted the newly-created role of chief broking officer at Austbrokers Holdings.

In his new role, McIvor will work closely with the existing management team and Austbrokers partner businesses to build the Austbrokers franchise with insurers, underwriters and other key stakeholders. He will also assist in growth, using his 25 years of broking, distribution and leadership skills.

Austbrokers Holdings has also recruited Sunil Vohra to the newly created position of chief operating officer. Vohra is currently national operations manager at CGU and will assume his new role at Austbrokers at the beginning of September.

Vohra has previously worked with several global financial service firms on strategy execution. He has consulted to and led major change initiatives for ANZ Banking Group in Australia and prior to that the Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds Banking Group and Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance in the UK.

As COO at Austbrokers, Vohra will also assume responsibility for the marketing function within Austbrokers Holdings which will be led by the new marketing & communications manager, Meg Hurley.

Hurley was previously sales and marketing manager at Iveco and prior to that, and undertook a similar role at Ansvar Insurance.

The appointments form part of Austbrokers’ strategic growth plans.

Austbrokers CEO Mark Searles hailed McIvor’s appointment a “testament to the company’s growth and our confidence in future opportunities”.

Searles also praised Vohra’s appointment, adding: “Sunil brings to Austbrokers a real skill in driving strategy execution and is the best exponent of delivery competencies I've worked with. He will be a tremendous asset in our drive to optimise our owner-driver operating model and to deliver value added services to our partners.”