Brightside swoops to take two from Towergate

Brightside has made a raft of appointments in a move to drive up the expertise around its operational, underwriting and compliance divisions.

Towergate regional managing director Stuart Grieb will join Brightside’s retail division as chief operating officer on 14 April.

Brightside’s new head of compliance Graham Johnston has also held senior and director level positions at Towergate, Paymentshield, Lloyds TSB Bank, Charles Schwab Europe and Eagle Star.

Paul Rountree, who spent 16 years at Endsleigh, most recently as motor pricing and underwriting manager, joined the broking group on 24 March as capacity and pricing manager.

Brightside chief executive Paul Williams said: “Brightside is a tenacious business, and I intend to move quickly to implement our future plans. Our new trajectory is attractive to talent like Stuart who sought us out. His appointment will add depth to the management structure and accelerate Brightside’s growth programme.

“Brightside has grown its panel of insurers over the past few years, and having Endsleigh’s former motor pricing and underwriting manager, Paul Rountree, onboard will strengthen the group’s pricing and MGA expertise, which will support my focus to target profitable growth for our insurer partners.

“Graham’s experience will benefit Brightside at a time when insurance brokers are coming under increased scrutiny from the FCA, and will ensure that our regulatory obligations are met and that proportionate systems and controls are developed and maintained throughout the implementation of our growth plan.”

Williams, the former UK broking director at Towergate, announced back in February his plans to expand its panel of insurers and increase profits by setting up delegated authority and managing general agent agreements.

In December, Brightside slashed its profit forecast for 2013 by 20% after being hit by capacity restrictions. Southern Rock, an insurer controlled by former chief executive Arron Banks, pulled its capacity. It had previously underwritten 30% of Brightside’s policies.

Brightside went on to issue a £6.8m share call and expanded its panel, which currently comprises Markerstudy, Ageas, Aviva, AXA and Groupama.