Howden centralises management with restructure

Howden’s insurance broking, reinsurance broking and underwriting arms will report directly to CEO David Howden, the London market intermediary has announced.

The restructure will be effective from 1 October 2023, after which the holding company and broking operations will rebrand under the Howden name and a single visual identity.

José Manuel González, CEO Howden Broking Group, who took over as CEO of the broking group in 2018, will retire from executive positions and remain with the group as special adviser, CEO Office, as well as becoming Chair of Howden Iberia, which he founded.

In its reinsurance broking business, reporting to CEO David Howden will be Howden Tiger CEO, Rob Bredahl. He will be supported by Rod Fox as executive chairman, Tim Ronda as president, and Elliot Richardson as vice chair, the company said.

“As I said last year when we announced that we had reached agreement to acquire TigerRisk Partners, we have completed the architecture of the group,” David Howden said.

“As we begin the next phase of our growth it is critical that we have the right structure in place so that we are aligned as one to harness our collective power, protect our culture, and to ensure we face our clients and markets as one business,” he continued.

“We will do this with our retail, specialty, reinsurance and underwriting leaders working together as a single management team,” Howden added.

Its insurance broking arm, UK and Ireland (UK&I) broking operations will be chaired by Barnaby Rugge-Price, currently deputy chair, Howden Broking Group.

He will be supported by Deputy Chairs Paul Redgate, currently CEO of global specialty, and Mark Wood, currently head of global practices, the company said.

Sarah Hughes, currently CEO of UK specialty, will lead Howden Specialty, which will bring together the current UK specialty, global specialty and capital advisory and placement businesses.

Carl Shuker will lead the UK&I retail broking operations. Andy Bragoli, currently executive chair of global specialty will become global head of placement.

Luigi Sturani will continue to lead mainland European broking operations, supported by Salvador Marin as CEO Northern Europe and Danny Sever as chairman. Howden’s operations in Turkey will become part of its Europe region.

Asia Pacific broking will be chaired by Mark Wood, with Goh Chye Huat and Matt Bacon leading Asia and Pacific respectively.

Latin America, India, Middle East and Africa will be led by Sonia Caamaño, currently CEO of international growth markets, and chaired by Paul Redgate, with Richard Mockett as CEO for Middle East and Africa, and Pablo Bores as Latam CEO.

Dual, the managing agency underwriting arm of the group, is left unchanged at the top.

It will continue to be led by Richard Clapham, CEO, and Kieran Sweeney, its executive chairman.

Olaf Jonda, Damien Coates and John Johnson continue to lead Europe, Asia Pacific and the US, respectively.

David Howden added: “Our operating model and infrastructure are key to our sustainable growth and we will continue to invest significantly in our support services functions to allow our experts to get on with what they do best – serving our clients.”