Marsh appoints six to consumer and commercial affinity

Marsh today announced six appointments to its consumer and commercial affinity business as part of a development push.

Darren Edwards joins as vice president, new business development, and will be responsible for the development of new business relating to brands, where Marsh administers consumer insurance policies on its clients’ behalf.

Edwards has over 14 years in the financial services and retail industries, including seven years at General Electrical and GE Global Consumer Capital Finance.

Dixie Thankey has been appointed as new business development leader within the brand business development team, which develops consumer insurance propositions for large organisations including mobile phone operators, retail banks and other sizeable business to consumer organisations.

Thankey will be responsible for fostering new relationships and generating revenue for the affinity business. She joins Marsh from Card Protection Services and has considerable experience in business-to-business sales development in the financial services and banking sectors.

Gabrielle Lee joins as business development leader and will also be responsible for opening up new relationships and delivering new business deals for the affinity practice. She also joins Marsh from Card Protection Services and has a strong track record in sales and marketing in a wide range of organisations including Thomas Cook, Travelex and Classic FM.

Stéphane Boiron has been appointed as marketing and value added services manager. Mr. Boiron will drive the marketing strategy across the business mix for the practice.

Boiron joins Marsh from Homeserve and has over seven years experience in the domestic electrical goods and furniture extended warranty markets, primarily developing products within the business-to-consumer and business-to-business environments.

Adam Lambert has been appointed as risk advisory manager within the marketing and value added services team.

Lambert will be responsible for development of the practice’s risk advisory service and the placement of new business. He joins Marsh from a regional underwriter and has over four years’ statistical and actuarial experience in the insurance industry.

Terri Warburton joins the practice in a bid manager capacity. She will be responsible for the production of all tender documents and market research.

Warburton worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Australia for over 20 years.

Based in London, Marsh’s affinity practice comprises consumer affinity (Brands/Warranty) and commercial affinity (Voluntary Employee Benefits, Franchises and Programmes) and specialises in creating affinity schemes based on personal lines insurance for clients in the telecommunications, financial services, retail and manufacturing sectors.

The business’s core services include product development, marketing, value-added services and programme administration. It also handles policy sales, service and claims on its clients’ behalf.

Commenting on the new appointments, Pierre Galeon, general manager, affinity practice at Marsh said: “Marsh has set out ambitious plans for growth in the affinity business over the next three years. The global consumer segment is a key growth area and we are in a very strong position to capture customer share in a fast-consolidating market.”

“In addition to the latest recruits, we are planning to hire a number of personnel over the next year to capitalise on the growing demand for affinity and voluntary employee benefits schemes among UK businesses.”