A year is a long time in insurance broking. It is also, apparently, how long Price Forbes is prepared to wait for the right person.
The firm has appointed Darren Ting as managing director of a new Real Estate and Heavy Industry practice serving multinational clients, in one of the London market's more eye-catching senior hires this year.
Ting joins from Arthur J. Gallagher, where he was most recently managing director, following earlier roles at Willis and Aon spanning three decades. He will report to Chris Rider, chief executive of Price Forbes's property division, and will be responsible for building the new multinational proposition from scratch.
The unusual detail is the timing. Ting's start date is June 2027, nearly a year after the appointment was announced. Price Forbes has not said why, but a gap of that length between a senior broker's departure and their arrival at a new firm is typically the result of a lengthy non-compete or garden-leave clause. Insurance Business has approached Price Forbes and Gallagher for comment on the terms of the move.
Price Forbes, founded in London in 1893, is part of Ardonagh Specialty and describes itself as running one of the largest property divisions in the London market, covering everything from national real estate portfolios to hard-to-place industrial risk. Rider said Ting's experience across "some of the market's most demanding sectors" made him "an outstanding addition" to the firm, and that he expected the new practice to build a strong reputation quickly.
The hire follows a period of reorganisation across Ardonagh Specialty, which has folded several of its wholesale broking brands into two entities, Price Forbes and Bishopsgate. Standing up a new multinational real estate and heavy industry practice under a broker of Ting's seniority points to where the group wants those consolidated brands to compete next: not simply as a wholesale broker servicing other intermediaries, but as a direct player in large, cross-border commercial risk - territory that has long been dominated by the big four brokers, Aon, Willis, Marsh and Gallagher.
Whether Price Forbes can compete there will depend partly on how much the firm invests in Ting's team once he is free to build it, and whether the appointment draws other senior brokers away from his former employer. For now, none of that can happen. Ting cannot legally recruit, approach clients, or do any of the work he has been hired for until next summer.
That has not stopped Price Forbes announcing the move now rather than waiting closer to his start date, which is itself worth noting. A year-long gap between hire and start is an unusual thing to make public, since it invites questions about a senior executive who is, for the time being, unable to do the job he has been appointed to. Getting ahead of a rival announcement, or simply staking an early claim to Ting before Gallagher or another broker can make a counter-offer, looks like the more likely explanation.
The appointment adds to a busier-than-usual run of senior moves across the London market this year, as Ardonagh Specialty and its competitors continue to compete for underwriting and broking talent at the top end of the business. How much of that activity Price Forbes can convert into new multinational business will not be clear until Ting is actually able to start.
Insurance Business has contacted Price Forbes and Arthur J. Gallagher for comment.
