This week’s appointments cover a private equity-backed broker platform hiring to drive acquisitions, and a leadership change at a fleet services business.
Fleet Assist’s business development director, Garry Winckley (pictured, left), will retire in January 2027. Customer success director Tim Peacock (pictured, right) will take responsibility for the business development team over the coming weeks.
Peacock will work with the team on operational and technology-led solutions for Fleet Assist’s more than 50 fleet customers, in the service, maintenance and repair (SMR) market.
Managing director Vincent St Claire said the role had been reshaped, with Peacock’s title reflecting his team’s work with internal teams to develop the business’s products and services.
Fleet maintenance management affects fleet downtime and repair costs, which feed into fleet insurance claims. For fleet brokers, providers investing in technology-led maintenance may help clients keep vehicles on the road and control losses.
Ascend Insurance Holdings (AIH) has appointed John Read as group development director, responsible for growing the group by partnering with independent commercial lines brokers across the UK.
Read was previously managing director of WTW’s networks division and a regional managing director in the West Midlands. He started his 30-year career at Aviva, and has also worked at Marsh and Allianz.
AIH was set up with backing from private equity firm Inflexion, which launched the platform in January with a cornerstone investment in Chelmsford-based Ascend Broking Group. The group received FCA authorisation in April and has backing of up to £200 million. Inflexion aims to build a group of four to six regional broking hubs, sharing central services such as IT, finance and compliance.
Chief executive Matthew Collins said Read’s experience would help accelerate the group’s growth while preserving the skills and local strength of its member firms.
“This is the perfect time to be joining AIH as it expands,” said Read. He said AIH’s strategy was to partner with brokers who want to keep their identity while gaining long-term capital, operational support and investment.
AIH said early partner firms will help shape the group’s culture, operating standards and growth priorities, and share in the long-term value created across the platform.
A development director who ran a broker network is well placed to approach independent broker owners. AIH is pitching itself as an alternative to large consolidators, offering autonomy and local identity. Broker owners considering a sale should expect more approaches from platforms competing on culture as well as price, at a time when several larger buyers have slowed their UK acquisitions.
