A series of senior appointments and structural changes have been announced across the insurance sector in the last 24hrs.
Verisk has formed Verisk General Insurance UK & Ireland, bringing together several existing businesses under one umbrella to make it easier for clients to access its solutions across underwriting, claims and policy administration.
The new unit combines international underwriting, property and risk (IUPR), Claims UK and Ignite, with the aim of strengthening connectivity across the insurance market and deepening collaboration with insurers as they navigate an increasingly complex risk environment.
Chris Sawford (pictured, left) has been appointed managing director, Verisk General Insurance UK & Ireland, effective immediately. He will oversee the integrated business. Sawford previously led Verisk’s Claims UK arm and co‑founded Validus‑IVC, a UK claims management solutions provider acquired by Verisk in 2018.
Guy Carpenter, a business of Marsh, has appointed Ian Bartholomew (pictured, centre) as global head of parametric advisory, effective June 1, 2026.
Bartholomew joins Guy Carpenter from FloodFlash, where he was co‑founder and chief underwriting officer. Before founding FloodFlash in 2017, he spent five years as a senior consultant in the capital markets advisory team at Moody’s RMS.
Bartholomew said joining Guy Carpenter offers an opportunity to advance the role of parametric advisory as global events become more unpredictable, and stressed the importance of solutions that are innovative, responsive and practical.
Lyfeguard has added to its leadership team with the appointment of Mark Allcock (pictured, right) as co‑founder and chief technology officer (CTO).
Allcock brings more than 30 years’ technology leadership experience across financial services, payments, digital banking and lending. As co‑founder and CTO of 10x Future Technologies, he helped build cloud‑native banking platforms designed to operate at national scale. His career also includes senior roles and programme leadership at organisations including Citibank, Credit Suisse, JP Morgan, Visa Europe and Barclays, as well as extensive work with e‑money and EMI‑regulated firms.
As CTO, Allcock will lead Lyfeguard’s technology strategy, with responsibility for platform architecture, security, scalability and long‑term resilience.
Markel Insurance, the insurance operations within Markel Group, has strengthened its UK broker distribution and change capability with two senior appointments, alongside an internal promotion.
Joanne Foreman has been appointed head of broker change and will be based in Manchester. She joins from AXA, where she played a key role in optimising broker‑related processes and interactions. At Markel, she will oversee transformational initiatives across broker touchpoints, ensuring operational changes are implemented to improve the broker experience and ease of trading.
Laura Fox has been appointed head of distribution strategy, based in Leeds. Formerly distribution development director at RSA, Fox will be responsible for the strategic direction, proposition and compliance of broker distribution channels.
Foreman and Fox join Charlotte Harrison, who has recently been promoted internally to head of strategic sales and relationships. Harrison joined Markel in 2024 as head of regional broker development and has quickly established herself as a key leader within the distribution function. In her new role, she will lead the distribution team and key external relationships.
The MDS Group has refreshed its board of directors to reflect the growing scale and complexity of the organisation and to strengthen its corporate governance.
The changes see Christophe Cornu join as non‑executive chairman and Ângelo Paupério as non‑executive director.
Cornu brings extensive international experience, having held roles including president of Nestlé France, CEO of Nestlé Suisse and chief commercial officer at Nespresso.
Paupério returns to the MDS board following a longstanding connection with the group, including a previous spell as a director when Sonae was a shareholder. A senior executive within the Sonae ecosystem, he is currently a board member of Efanor and Sonae and chairman of the board of NOS, and has held roles including CFO, executive vice‑president and co‑CEO of Sonae SGPS.
Further additions to the board, representing MDS Group’s sole shareholder The Ardonagh Group, are John Tiner, group chairman, and Des O’Connor, group CCO.
José Manuel Fonseca remains group CEO and chairman of the executive committee. The rest of the executive team is unchanged: José Diogo Silva as group CFO; Ricardo Pinto dos Santos as group COO and CEO Portugal; and Álvaro Mengotti as head of international and CEO Spain.
