Dale Partners receives approvals to open managing agency, appoint directors

Dale Partners Limited (DPL) has received approval from the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Lloyd’s to establish a managing agency, Dale Managing Agency.

Following the approvals, DPL appointed four independent non-executive directors (NED) to join the board of Dale Managing Agency. These are:

• John Hastings-Bass, who will chair the board. Hastings-Bass is also chair of Just plc and BMS Group. His prior appointments include director of JLT Group, chair of international development for Gallagher and chair of Novae Group Plc.
• Heather McKinlay, who will chair the audit committee. McKinlay is currently also an NED for Antares Syndicate Management Limited and trustee of humanitarian charitable organisation RedR UK. She has more than 20 years of experience in contributing to businesses of various sizes, specialising in the transformation and development of finance functions in previous CFO and executive director roles in the non-life insurance sector.
• Alan Grant, who will chair the risk committee. Grant is currently an NED for Oneglobal Insurance Brokers. Grant’s prior appointments include chair of the risk committee at Thomas Miller Holdings and chair of the risk framework and compliance committee of Argenta Syndicate Management.
• John Hume, former chair of XL Re Europe. Hume has more than 35 years’ experience in financial services companies, providing guidance on finance, business strategy, operations and culture, and leading large transformation projects.

Other members of the board are DPL chief executive Duncan Dale, active underwriter Dominic Peters, and finance director Carol McCarthy.

“This is fantastic news and a major milestone in the development of Dale Underwriting Partners,” Dale said. “It has always been our long-term goal to establish our own managing agency to give us the independence and accountability for the strategy, execution and governance of the business. Naturally, I would like to thank our amazing team. Their hard work, dedication and resilience have brought us to this point.

“This is a tremendous endorsement of our team and to supplement the 50 managing agents currently managing live syndicates in the Lloyd’s market is an honour and privilege. I would like to thank all of the team at Asta for their tremendous support for the past nine years. This has paved the way for us to take the next step in the evolution of our business at Lloyd’s. We are also extremely grateful for the hard work and commitment to making this happen by the teams in Lloyd’s, the PRA and FCA and look forward to working with them into the future.”