More senior staff changes at Giles as director resigns

Giles Insurance Brokers’ senior management team has been dealt another blow after trading and placement director Andrew Watson quit the company last week.

It is believed he resigned after a dispute over the direction of his role. He was based in Scotland and focused on that region.

The current senior management team was set up at the end of last year following the departure of former managing director Michael Quinn and distribution director Leo Gibbons. Watson was promoted to trading and placement director in September and replaced Quinn on the board. He was previously a trading director.

The management structure set out by Giles included: Chris Giles, chief executive; Paul Matson, finance director; Hazel McIntyre, M&A director; Sarah Lyons, operations director; Andrew Watson, trading and placement director; Sean Finnegan, senior regional managing director.

In March, the company also added Howard Pearson, retail managing director, and Mark Addis, wholesaling managing director, to the board.

A Giles spokesman told Insurance Times: “Giles can confirm that Andrew Watson has resigned for personal reasons. We wish him well in his future career.

“Giles continues to develop its management team across the business and is focused on developing the trading and placement role into a UK-wide remit.

“We are looking to develop the trading and placement team under the directorship of Mark Addis, who is based in London.”

It is not known whether Watson has a new position.

Last month, Giles’s director of underwriting services, Tom Ernoult, a former director at Oxygen, Heath Lambert and Marsh, left the broker after six months. He was brought in to aid the expansion of the consolidator’s managing general agent, Ink Underwriting.

It was believed his role was only short-term, however, and would be shared between teams led by Watson and underwriting director Martin Madden.

Insurance Times also reported last month that Giles had agreed a settlement with former employee Adam Scott. Giles claimed that Scott had attempted to take business from the broker when he left the company. The firm also outlined its tough approach to dealing with former staff who breached its restrictive covenants.