Senior appointments this week span private equity and M&A transaction risk in Iberia, and executive HR leadership at a Bermuda-based specialty underwriter.
Gallagher has appointed Manuel Gómez González (pictured, left) as director of warranty and indemnity, transaction solutions, Iberia, within its global Private Equity and M&A (PEMA) practice, expanding the practice's European presence.
Based in Madrid with an Iberia-wide remit, he reports to Cristina Chaparro Vaquero, executive director of PEMA in Iberia.
Gómez González brings more than a decade advising corporates and private equity funds on complex, high-value M&A transactions across Europe, working alongside W&I insurance solutions across the full deal lifecycle from due diligence through structuring and negotiation. He joins from international law firm Squire Patton Boggs, where he was senior M&A associate, having previously spent nearly nine years at Garrigues as a corporate M&A senior associate.
The appointment continues a rapid build-out of Gallagher's Iberia and wider European PEMA capability. Chaparro Vaquero herself joined Gallagher as a senior broker specialising in tax insurance in September 2025, alongside Pau López Fornons as associate broker, part of a run of hires that has also included Alexander Nagler as head of tax insurance for France and Tom Hughes as UK director of tax insurance, all within roughly the past year.
Gómez González said he is excited to join a fast-growing team in Spain and lead the expansion of W&I business across Iberia, pointing to significant opportunity to support the region's deal-making community.
Gómez González's background as a practising M&A lawyer, rather than a career insurance broker, is particularly relevant. Retail brokers referring Iberian private equity clients into Gallagher's PEMA practice gain a specialist who has sat on the client side of exactly these negotiations, giving him direct insight into how deal lawyers and PE sponsors actually think about risk allocation, timing pressure and purchase agreement structuring, rather than only the insurance market's side of the conversation.
SiriusPoint has appointed Rachel Winoski (pictured, right) as chief human resources officer, effective October 5, 2026.
Based in New York, she joins the executive leadership team reporting to chief executive Scott Egan, and succeeds Sarah Smith, who has served as interim chief human resources officer since April 2026 and will now continue as HR director, partnering with SiriusPoint's UK and European operations.
Winoski joins from AXA XL, where she was chief HR officer for the Americas, having spent more than 12 years at the company rising from an internal audit intern to the C-suite. She brings more than 15 years of HR leadership experience in insurance, having led large-scale organisational transformation, supported acquisitions and integrations, and built global HR functions spanning talent, culture, employee relations, reward, and belonging and inclusion.
The appointment lands as SiriusPoint continues a closely watched financial turnaround: the insurer posted a 17.4% return on equity in the first quarter of 2026, alongside three credit rating upgrades to 'A' within three months and a core combined ratio of 88.9%, with its insurance and services segment growing 8% even as it deliberately shrank its reinsurance book by 10%.
A carrier mid-turnaround, deliberately growing its insurance and services book while shrinking reinsurance, depends heavily on retaining and motivating the underwriting talent driving that selective growth strategy, and HR leadership is central to whether that talent stays put through a period of active portfolio reshaping.
Brokers with clients placed through SiriusPoint's MGA and program administrator partnerships in particular should watch for continuity in underwriting teams over the coming months, since HR leadership changes at growing carriers sometimes precede broader organisational shifts that can affect service consistency, even when, as here, the change itself reads as a considered, permanent appointment rather than a sign of instability.
