This is also following the promotion of James Collins and hire of Elaine Lennox. Both will report into Gareth Birch, Managing Director of Small Business & Personal Lines.
James Collins has been appointed Managing Director of dedicated block-of-flats broker Deacon. James assumes responsibility for the award-winning specialist business alongside his current responsibility for over-50s insurance specialist Insure4Retirement. Together they make up Gallagher’s Bournemouth office, the division’s largest regional office.
Elaine Lennox has been appointed Managing Director of Leisure - Gallagher’s dedicated UK holiday and home parks business, based in Gloucester. Since its move into the sector in 2014, Gallagher has secured more than 950 parks, invested in the creation of a 25-strong experienced team and delivered consistent, profitable growth.
Elaine will join Gallagher in March, having most recently been Direct and Partnership Manager for Zurich Insurance’s personal lines division. Prior to that, she spent 10 years at JLT in various strategic and operational roles involving relationship management, product enhancement and business development — including time within its holiday and residential park division.
Commenting on the appointments, Gareth Birch said: “It’s great to have such a strong leadership team right across the specialist businesses that sit within our UK Small Business & Personal Lines division. We’re primed to push ahead with our plans for strategic growth and Gallagher has fantastic teams in both the block-of-flats and leisure sectors. Elaine and James will be natural leaders for those specialist businesses who daily look after customers with challenges and complexities unique to their fields.
“With her customer-focused skills and sector experience, Elaine is a great cultural fit for our well-established holiday and home park team, which has demonstrated such impressive growth over recent years. While James’ success at developing and driving forward the Insure4Retirement business made him was the clear choice to promote from within to take responsibility for the wider Bournemouth office.”
The appointment of James and Elaine follows the recently announced internal promotion of David Birch, as MD of Brand Partners, and completes the leadership team of Gallagher’s UK Small Business & Personal Lines division under Gareth Birch, which includes UK private clients, consumer, SME and commercial affinity business.
Prior to his appointment as MD of Small Business & Personal Lines, Gareth led the UK Leisure practice, extending his remit in 2016 to include responsibility for Deacon, Gallagher’s award-winning specialist block of flats insurance business.
