Four insurance businesses have confirmed senior leadership changes spanning Swiss broking, MGA underwriting governance, European distribution strategy and retail/MGA operational restructuring. Three of the four involve net-new roles rather than straight replacements - a pattern that reflects organisations adding leadership capacity ahead of growth rather than simply managing succession.
Gallagher has made two appointments in Switzerland as part of a push to expand the business, one a new hire and one a net-new role creation. Gosia Kuczewska (pictured, left) joins as head of distribution and client management, bringing more than 17 years of experience across broking, underwriting and client management spanning accident and health, property, marine and professional indemnity lines. She will lead distribution and client engagement development across Switzerland with a focus on new business.
Gallagher has simultaneously created a new chief broking officer role for Switzerland - a position that did not previously exist - to oversee the team delivering insurance and risk management solutions to clients. Samuel Trost, who previously led client management and business development, moves into the role. He joined Gallagher in 2021 having started at Allianz in 2010 before moving into broking in 2014. Both Kuczewska and Trost will report to Switzerland CEO Christian Peters. Gallagher has operated in Switzerland since 2019, offering financial lines, construction and property alongside its specialist art practice Gallagher accurART.
Specialist Risk Group has appointed Neil Ross as chief underwriting officer of MX - another newly created position, reflecting a specific maturity threshold. Creating a dedicated CUO role at an MGA signals that the underwriting book, insurer engagement complexity and portfolio management responsibilities have reached a scale requiring senior dedicated oversight rather than absorption within existing leadership. Ross joins later this year once existing contractual obligations are fulfilled, bringing more than two decades of underwriting and portfolio management experience across Miller, AXIS and CNA Hardy. He will be responsible for underwriting strategy, portfolio performance, insurer engagement and the development of MX's specialist underwriting proposition.
Neil Nimmo, UK CEO of SRG, said the creation of the CUO role reflects deliberate investment ahead of the curve rather than reactive succession planning. "The creation of the Chief Underwriting Officer role is a natural next step in our evolution, and I am delighted to welcome Neil to the business," he said.
QBE has promoted Queralt Vila (pictured, centre) to head of distribution for Europe, effective August 1, succeeding Maths Stanser who is retiring this summer. Vila has been with QBE Europe for almost four years, most recently shaping the European growth agenda, giving the promotion a continuity dimension that an external hire would not. Based in Barcelona, she will report to chief customer officer Andrew Besant and sit on both the Market Management Exec and the European Management Committee.
Vila will lead how QBE engages with brokers and clients across Europe, with focus on the corporate and mid-market segments across property, casualty, financial lines, cyber, marine and sustainable energy. Her background spans nearly 20 years across Switzerland, the UK and Spain, including underwriting and broker relationship management at Zurich in the London market, alongside roles at EY and Aspen - a cross-functional combination of underwriting, distribution and strategy experience that gives the distribution leadership role its specific rationale.
The Broker Investment Group is making three senior hires alongside the departure of two division CEOs - a simultaneous leadership restructuring rather than routine team-building. James Watkin, outgoing CEO of TBIG's MGA division, and Andy Roden, outgoing CEO of its retail division, are both leaving, with the Group acknowledging their contributions. The three incoming appointments replace that divisional CEO structure with a different leadership architecture.
Stuart Grieb (pictured, right) joins on July 13 as group chief operating officer, leading both the retail and MGA businesses with responsibility for operational excellence and cross-business collaboration. He brings senior leadership experience from Marsh, Towergate, Brightside, WTW and, most recently, Brown & Brown. Nick Hopkin takes on an expanded remit as strategic development director, leading placement across the Group, bringing central market relationships closer to local trading operations and assuming responsibility for MGA market relationships and insurer partnerships - a role that consolidates functions previously distributed across the two separate divisional structures. Rosie Guru joins on July 20 as group integration director, bringing transformation and integration experience from RSA, NFP and consultancy roles across the insurance sector.
The restructuring replaces two separate divisional CEO positions with a single group COO alongside dedicated placement and integration leadership - a structure that centralises strategic and operational oversight while retaining specialist functions at the group level.
