Aston Lark opens Cheltenham office headed up by new senior hire

Goldman Sachs-backed broker Aston Lark has opened a new office in Cheltenham, to be headed up by new associate director Jim Stevenson, effective from 6 April 2020.

The new office will primarily cover Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire, as well as the Midlands and South West.

As part of Stevenson’s new role, he will broaden his network of relationships in these regions to enhance and promote Aston Lark’s facilities, services and schemes to clients. He will also be responsible for recruitment into the new office.

Stevenson has more than 30 years of commercial insurance and risk management experience, clocking up tenures at firms such as Clarke Roxburgh, Jelf, Marsh Commercial, Commercial Union, CGU, Norwich Union and Aviva.

Peter Blanc, group chief executive at Aston Lark, said: “Aston Lark is first and foremost about looking after clients. Jim clearly shares our passion for customer service and, with his wealth of experience and depth of relationships, I’m looking forward to seeing our new Cheltenham office go from strength to strength.

“We plan to carry on recruiting and growing organically across the country and welcome discussions with like-minded individuals. I wish Jim all the very best as he builds a new office from scratch as part of the Aston Lark family”.

Stevenson added: “I had a great opportunity to reflect and consider my next role carefully. Aston Lark has had an exceptional trajectory since its merger, with integrity and customers at the core of its strategy.

“The recent investment by Goldman Sachs continues to drive growth and I look forward to working with Peter and the Aston Lark team to introduce their insurance and employee benefits proposition into this greenfield region for the group.

“Increasingly in this current climate, businesses focused on sustainable growth must surround themselves with advisors who support all their operations, supply chain and people.

“Aston Lark will adapt and evolve with a ceaseless focus on good customer outcomes and agility to become the broker of choice for customers, insurers, employees, affiliates and other brokers that might consider Aston Lark as the ideal home for their business when the time is right.”