Senior appointments this week span construction risk advisory, legal expenses claims leadership, continental European specialty underwriting, motor fraud defence, and Nordic real estate.
Willis, a WTW business, has appointed Faris Nimri as head of construction for Western Europe. Based in Switzerland, Nimri reports to Gemma Tait, head of construction, GB, Europe, Middle East and Africa at Willis. He will work with regional leadership to develop the construction proposition across Western European markets.
Nimri joins from Swiss Re Corporate Solutions, where he was global head of renewable energy from May 2022, with responsibility for global strategy, financial performance and operations across both construction and operational phases of renewable energy projects. Before moving into insurance, Nimri spent close to a decade as a project engineer in the construction industry in Australia and the Middle East, giving him direct technical grounding in the risks he now brokers.
Tait said Nimri brings a combination of technical expertise, market insight and leadership experience to the role. Hugo Wegbrans, head of Europe at WTW, said Western Europe is a strategically important region for the construction business and that Nimri's leadership will help connect expertise across markets.
WTW's own construction market update for Q3 2025 noted the construction insurance marketplace had become increasingly competitive, with rate reductions common across most regions and carriers increasing available capacity at both primary and excess attachment points. For construction clients with cross-border projects across Western Europe, the appointment of a dedicated regional head with an engineering background and underwriting experience on large-scale renewables projects extends the depth of technical advice available through a single Willis contact.
Addept Insurance Services has named Liz Althorpe (pictured, first from left) as claims manager, with responsibility for strategic and operational oversight of the claims function across its legal expenses and ancillary insurance portfolio. She reports to Kelly Jarrett, chief finance and operating officer.
Kelly Jarrett said Althorpe combines senior leadership experience with a strong technical background across brokers, insurance companies and loss adjusters. That breadth, Jarrett said, will be important in delivering a robust and responsive service as Addept grows its portfolio and distribution footprint.
The appointment comes as Addept expands its distribution base. In June, the company signed a multi-million-pound, five-year capacity deal with Irwell Insurance to support the legal expenses portfolio it launched in April 2025. Around 140,000 policyholders migrated from Atec Group's add-on insurance portfolio to Addept in the same period.
Lauren Woods, who joined Addept as head of claims operations in January, moves to a newly created commercial partnerships manager role.
Arch Insurance EU has tapped Giacomo Mariani (pictured, second from left) as Italy branch manager, subject to regulatory approval. Based in Milan, Mariani is responsible for day-to-day operations, business development and broker engagement for the Italian branch.
The appointment follows Arch Insurance EU's Milan office opening in April. The office began writing accident and health, cargo and logistics, fine art and specie, general liability and property with immediate effect. The Milan hub extends Arch's existing EU platform, which already operates branches in France and Spain writing casualty, cyber and financial lines.
Duncan Smith, CEO of Arch Insurance EU, said Mariani's leadership experience and market reputation make him well placed to lead the growth strategy in Italy as Arch increases its relevance to brokers and clients across the region.
Brokers placing Italian risks in cargo, fine art and specie or mid-corporate property now have a local Arch contact in Milan rather than routing enquiries through Dublin or Paris. Mariani's background at Everest, Aon and Zurich points to broad commercial lines capability rather than a narrow specialty focus.
QGLaw, the law firm within the QuestGates group, has appointed Gary Herring (pictured, second from right) as partner and head of credit hire. He joins from Keoghs, where he was partner and head of credit hire, to lead QGLaw's credit hire proposition and expand its fraud offering.
Herring specialised in credit hire defence at Keoghs from 2007. His case record includes the 2017 Court of Appeal ruling in Clayton v EUI, which clarified the law on recoverable hire rates in insurers' favour. He was a key figure in the 2025 Court of Appeal decision in AXA v Spectra, which established that credit hire organisations can be made liable for defendant insurers' costs where a claim fails.
His pre-action disclosure strategies reduced one insurer's litigation rate from 94% to 35%, and he exposed a document fraud that led to approximately £1 million in charges being withdrawn, according to QGLaw. Herring sits on the Forum of Insurance Lawyers (FOIL) credit hire sector focus team and holds entries in the Legal 500 and The Times Best Law Firms 2026.
Jason Spencer, managing director of QGLaw, said Herring's track record and his insight into credit hire reform make him the right person to lead the firm's credit hire offering. For personal lines and motor insurers with material credit hire exposure, his appointment gives QGLaw a more credible senior contact for complex or strategic cases.
Lockton has named Jonathan Lindé (pictured, first from right) as head of real estate in Sweden, based in Stockholm. Lindé joins from Swedish broker Söderberg & Partners to develop Lockton's real estate proposition across Sweden, focused on property owners, investors, developers and asset managers.
The appointment comes against a backdrop of selective recovery in the Nordic real estate market after a period of rate-driven contraction. Sweden's Riksbank cut its policy rate from 4% to 2% between May 2024 and mid-2026, and JLL's Nordic Outlook Spring 2026 report noted the market had moved from stabilisation into selective recovery as financing conditions eased. Johan Lindvall, CEO of Lockton Sweden, said the business had doubled in size over the previous year.
Rachel Norris, international real estate leader at Lockton's global real estate practice, said the appointment continues the growth of the European real estate business, with the ambition to build the strongest market proposition by combining local expertise with the wider European platform.
Clients with Swedish real estate portfolios seeking cross-border risk advisory, or investors entering the market during the current recovery phase, now have a dedicated Lockton contact in Stockholm.
