Ageas Insurance has appointed Cathy Taylor as head of commercial underwriting and operations, taking over from Roy Watkinson, who retires at the end of this year after more than three years at Ageas.
Ms Taylor joined on Monday (1 September) after taking a year’s sabbatical as the interim chief executive of St Peters Hospice in Bristol.
Prior to that she had been in several senior management roles at the Ecclesiastical Insurance Group, and has over 25 years of commercial broker market experience from working at Aviva and Direct Line Group.
She will be responsible for managing the performance and development of Ageas’s commercial lines account. Ageas is aiming to grow in this sector while improving its combined operating ratio.
Ms Clarke will be based in the company’s Gloucester commercial lines centre and will also spend much of her time with the commercial underwriters in Manchester and London.
Ms Taylor will report to underwriting director Adam Clarke, who commented that the firms is in a position to grow in areas including e-traded business, commercial motor and schemes.
Mr Clarke said: “Her experience in front-line underwriting, relationship management and underwriting strategy is really going to bring a new and exciting focus to the team.”
