Mageean latest to join McManus’s revolution

In an interesting development today, Bernard Mageean is heading to join Brendan McManus’s revolution at Giles as managing director of underwriting and wholesale.

Giles Chief executive McManus and Mageean worked together at RSA and get on well. It seems that McManus is bringing in people he knows and trusts.

Broker Network is apparently not too surprised Mageean has left his role as director of insurance at the network. It knows he’s close to McManus.

Giles didn’t clarify whether he’ll be above or below Mike Smith, who is Ink Insurance managing director. It seems that he’ll be working alongside Smith in his new role.

Mageean’s role will strengthen links between Giles’s retail and wholesale businesses. That could see more Giles retail brokers placing business with the wholesale arm.

For Mageean it means he’s back on the insurance underwriting scene after his departure as head of property at QBE two years ago.

It’s Giles’s second big signing in a week. It emerged last week that Alan McEwan was leaving Towergate to become new regional managing director for Scotland and Northern Ireland.

McManus is bringing in good quality people to help the business fight its way through a challenging market.

Yesterday, Insurance Times revealed that Giles has abandoned its flotation plans. McManus is building an experienced team to take the consolidator through years of low UK economic growth, soft market conditions and failing businesses. It’s not going to be easy, but having seasoned heads will certainly help.