R&SA shake-up

Royal & SunAlliance (R&SA) will be trawling the national brokers for its new global sales director after the insurer overhauled its commercial division this week.

It is understood the insurer has begun looking for an experienced commercial broker with a “construction and engineering” background, according to sources.

The company is also seeking a new trading director who will be responsible for designing and developing new propositions across the three channels of national broker, regional broker, and consolidators such as Towergate and Primary Broker Services.

An R&SA spokeswoman said: “We are looking both internally and externally for candidates, but it is too early to say who or when they will be placed.”

She added that no one had resigned due to the shake-up. “I would hope people understand what we are trying to achieve in this move,” she said.

The reorganisation means the insurer will transfer its personal general and brand broker business into a single division. It has now been rebranded, purely for “simplicity purposes”, to ‘broker’ and will be led by Brendan McManus.

R&SA said it remained committed to SME broker business even though it has ramped up its SME direct division through the More Th>n portfolio led by Adrian Brown. Brown will now oversee More Th>n Business which transfers to the online division.

Other changes include the creation of sales director roles organised around customer groups, rather than industry sectors.

Brendan McManus managing director of R&SA’s Broker division said: “R&SA’s personal and commercial teams have been working increasingly closely together with brokers over the past 18 months, so it was the next logical step to move to an integrated broker relationship structure with single points of contact.

“The new organisation will give us closer contact with brokers, and enable a swifter response to their ideas and problems. By separating the management of sales and operations we should deliver much higher standards in both areas.”

The new face of R&SA’s commercial division
Managing director - Brendan McManus, previously commercial director

Chief operations officer - Mike Canniffe, previously director of corporate business

Sales directors:
Global broker - yet to be appointed

Regional broker - Mike Lawton, previously corporate sales director

Portfolio sales - Duncan Finch, previously director of personal brand broker

Trading director - yet to be appointed

Commercial underwriting director - Bernard Mageean

Change director - Stephen Bell

Marketing and planning director - Paul Greensmith