Daily briefing: Tuesday - The new face of Willis

Willis is back making headlines again just days after the shock departure of chief executive Brendan McManus.

Yesterday afternoon, the Lime Street-based broker announced the appointment of a new chief executive for Willis UK & Ireland; with the little-known Daniel Wilkinson landing the top job. The role was one of two previously occupied by McManus, who was a well-known, well-liked personality in the UK insurance market.

A search of Insurance Times’s archive for Wilkinson didn’t bear much fruit. But some further investigation by the Insurance Times team has compiled a bit more of a character reference for the man who will now answer to enigmatic Willis Group boss Joe Plumeri.

What is clear is that Wilkinson is an ardent company man. He’s spent the last 16 years with the business and as the longest-serving member of the WUKI executive team, you could say he was the obvious candidate for the job.

“I’m excited at the opportunity to lead a business to which I have devoted a substantial portion of my career in insurance and which I’m so passionate about,” was his statement yesterday. It speaks bundles about his enthusiasm for the job.

But his client-facing background and sales driven approach will also have held him in good stead.

Expect aggression

Former colleagues of Wilkinson say it’s no surprise he has been promoted and expect Willis to become a much more aggressive outfit because of his focus on growing revenues – which is likely to be an immediate priority after the broker today report commission and fees in the UK as “slightly down”.

Recently he’s been spearheading Willis’s push into the corporate market, heading up offices in Cardiff and Birmingham and was pictured at the forefront of Willis’s office launch in Birmingham last year with Plumeri. 

On LinkedIn he describes his ‘specialties’ as “leadership, sales and marketing (in particular enabling those who think they can’t sell to sell!)” which will give Willis’s 1,100 staff a good idea of what they can expect. He’s also known for having strong insurer relationships and was described by one ex-staffer as a “black and white character”. The UK market will soon be able to make up its own mind.