Post Office expands insurance team

Post Office Financial Services has announced four new appointments to its insurance team, which has tripled in size since launching in 2004.

With an ambitious growth strategy in place, the new team members will play a key role in developing the Post Office’s insurance range, which currently includes motor, home, van cover for small businesses and stand-alone payment protection insurance.

The Post Office recently reached insurance policy sales of over 600,000.

The new appointments are Duncan Caesar-Gordon, Gerry Barrett, Liz May and Emma Baunach.

Caesar-Gordon will take up the post of Head of Protection Products, and will be responsible for Lifestyle Protection, the Post Office’s standalone PPI product and Over 50’s Life cover. He will also be working on the development of further new products to be launched later this year.

Duncan joins Post Office from RBS Group, where he was Head of Complementary Insurance for NatWest and RBS’ loans business.

Barrett becomes Head of Customer Value, a newly created role. He spent a number of years at the AA, most recently as a Product Manager for AA Insurance.

May becomes Senior Product Manager, and will focus primarily on Lifestyle Protection. She joins from Lloyds TSB, where she looked after its payment protection products.

Emma Baunach will manage Post Office's home insurance offering as Senior Product Manager. Previously at HSBC, where she was responsible for home insurance. Emma also spent time at Tesco Personal Finance where she was responsible for pet and travel insurance.

Post Office Financial Services director of insurance Phil Ashkuri said: “Our aim is to become a major player in the financial services industry, so it is important to have the right team in place. Post Office Financial Services has already shown its potential by reaching one million customers just three years after launch and with the added support and experience the new appointments bring, we are on course to deliver even more."

Post Office insurance products are available by telephone and online and information is available at all 14,000 UK Post Office branches - one of the largest retail networks in Europe.