Allianz appoints Mike Gill to head Newcastle branch

Allianz has appointed Mike Gill to lead its Newcastle branch after the entire sales team left the company to join AXA last month.

Gill was previously a regional underwriting manager at Allianz’s Leeds branch, which handled the back office functions of the Newcastle office.

Allianz’s five branch executives, headed by branch manager Les Archibold, left Allianz on 1 April.

Speaking to Insurance Times at Biba 2014, Allianz commercial general manager Simon McGinn said the insurer remained committed to the region.

“We believe local presence gives you better ability to deal better with your customers,” he said.

McGinn said the new team would be “knocking on lots of doors” to drive Allianz’s recently launched retail and wholesale product, e-traded directors and officers and contractors policies.

“We’ve got more things to go and talk about,” he said. “It’s the same underwriting strategy as we had before with some different people.”