Caroline Wagstaff, chief executive of the London Market Group (LMG), has been appointed president of the London Phoenix Orchestra, the century-old amateur orchestra founded by and for people working in the London insurance market.
Wagstaff succeeds Reg Brown, who steps down after 16 years in the role. Alan Grant, chair of the London Phoenix Orchestra, said Brown had been an unwavering supporter of the orchestra over many years and that Wagstaff would be a strong advocate as it continued to develop its programme.
Wagstaff said the orchestra embodied something recognisable about how the London market operates. “It is the embodiment of how the London insurance market operates - collaboratively and creatively, bringing together experts in many different fields, with each of them taking a starring role at different parts of the process,” she said.
The orchestra was founded in 1924 by Harold Rawlinson as the Insurance Orchestra, with the explicit aim of bringing together people in the London market through a shared passion for music. It has since been renamed the London Phoenix Orchestra and performs at venues including Cadogan Hall and Sinfonia Smith Square, under the baton of conductor Levon Parikian. It operates as part of the Insurance Orchestral Society, a registered charity.
Wagstaff has led the London Market Group since April 2021, initially on an interim basis before being confirmed as permanent chief executive that September. Her background spans nearly three decades in London market communications, including five years as head of marketing and communications at Lloyd’s of London, where she managed the institution’s public profile through the September 11 attacks, the Concorde crash, and a major Lloyd’s fraud trial. She subsequently founded specialist insurance communications firm Lucid Communication in 2005, which became part of Luther Pendragon in 2012.
The LMG’s current priorities include attracting early-career talent to the London market, strengthening relationships with government and regulators, and promoting London as the global centre for specialty risk. Wagstaff has been a regular public voice on those issues since taking the role.
