People Moves: Marsh Promotes Russell as Global Head of Wholesale; Markel Boosts Wholesale Claims Team With 3 Key Promotions, Technical Claims Hire

This edition of International People Moves details appointments at insurance broker Marsh and the insurer Markel.

A summary of these new hires follows here.

Marsh Promotes Russell as Global Head of Wholesale, Meah as Head of Strategy, Global Placement

Marsh, the insurance brokerage business of Marsh McLennan, announced the appointment of Adam Russell as head of Global Wholesale, effective immediately. Based in London, Russell reports to John Donnelly, president, Global Placement, Marsh.

In this role, Russell has overall responsibility for Marsh’s global wholesale insurance broking operations, which includes portfolio solutions. He will focus on developing Marsh’s global wholesale and facultative business and supporting clients through providing a comprehensive range of capabilities, solutions, and advice.

Russell, who has been head of Strategy, Global Placement, since December 2023, brings over 20 years’ international experience to the role. He joined Marsh in 2014 and held senior leadership positions within Marsh’s international wholesale placement business in Singapore before becoming Placement Leader for Marsh Asia’s retail business in 2018. In 2022, he relocated to London to lead Marsh’s UK Portfolio Solutions and Digital Placement teams before assuming his current role.

Charlotte Meah succeeds Russell as head of Strategy, Global Placement. Meah joined Marsh in 2013 as a senior advisor in the risk consulting business, and most recently served as chief of staff, Marsh Specialty & Global Placement. She is based in Atlanta and also reports to Donnelly.

Commenting on the appointments, Donnelly said: “Bringing together our wholesale capabilities under Adam’s leadership will allow us to provide clients with unparalleled and consistent access to the best and most appropriate markets and solutions for them no matter where they are located around the world.”

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Markel Boosts Wholesale Claims With 3 Promotions, Technical Claims Hire

Markel, the insurance operations within Markel Group Inc., announced it has made three internal promotions and hired a technical claims lead to further enhance its wholesale claims service for brokers, insureds and trading partners.

The quartet of appointments include Dan Thomas, who has joined the business as marine technical claims lead, where he’ll work as part of Markel’s marine liability claims team with the underwriters by providing feedback on policy wordings and claims insights for both renewal and new business, while fostering relationships with broker partners. He’ll also collaborate with the business’ actuarial and outwards reinsurance teams, making sure that they’re kept abreast of key developments.

Thomas brings a wealth of industry experience and expertise to his role, spanning more than two decades. Previously, he was head of Marine Claims at Helvetia Global Solutions UK, where he was responsible for managing claims across the organization’s marine portfolio. Prior to this role, Thomas worked for QBE European Operations/British Marine as head of Technical Adjusting and Steamship Mutual P&I Club. Across these posts, he’s gained extensive experience in the marine insurance sector, including marine liability, protection and indemnity, hull and machinery and war. Based at Markel’s London office, Thomas will report to Tim Warren, claims manager – Marine Liability.

In addition, Markel has promoted Debbie Larkin to claims manager – Energy, Liability and Terrorism, effective March 31. In this role, she’ll be responsible for the businesses’ upstream, midstream and downstream energy claims, along with claims written as part of Markel’s sustainable energy, conventional power and terrorism portfolios. She will lead a dedicated team of claims handlers, maintaining fast response times to resolve claims matters and help to streamline processes to offer an enhanced service for clients.

Larkin has been with Markel for almost two years’, spending this time managing all levels of claims within the organization’s energy, liability and terrorism business classes. Previously, she spent 15 years as a lawyer advising insurance carriers on coverage, defense and policy wordings – bringing cross-functional expertise to the business.

Meanwhile, Rachel Tighe has been promoted to claims manager – Professional Indemnity (PI), effective immediately. In her new position, Tighe’s principal duties will include managing the PI wholesale claims team, ensuring they continue to provide a market-leading claims service, ensuring closer broker interaction, and supporting other members in her team with their professional development.

Tighe joined Markel over five years ago, starting at the business as a senior claims adjuster for Markel’s PI team, before progressing to assistant claims manager – PI. As a qualified solicitor with more than 14 years of experience in PI and insurance, Tighe brings a wealth of knowledge to the role of claims manager – PI. Prior to her arrival at Markel, Tighe worked as a claims solicitor at AmTrust Europe Ltd., where she specialized in solicitors PI, financial services PI and construction PI.

The third promotion is Natalie Myhill, who will assume the role of claims manager – Financial Institutions (FI). Her primary objectives will involve managing the FI wholesale claims team by supporting them in resolving complex claims matters for FI and fintech clients. She will also carry on building strong relationships with Markel’s broker network and collaborate with the organization’s FI and Fintech underwriting teams – keeping them abreast of important claims trends and developments, so they can continue providing tailored coverage to support their clients’ evolving risk exposures.

Myhill is a seasoned claims professional with 14 years of experience within the London and Lloyd’s markets. She joined Markel in 2020, before receiving two promotions in short succession from senior claims adjuster to assistant claims manager – FI, and now her latest post as claims manager – FI and Fintech. Before joining the company, she was employed at Sompo International as an AV, senior claims examiner, where she specialized in the professional indemnity, D&O and FI classes of business.

In addition to their day-to-day responsibilities, Myhill and Tighe are co-founders of Markel’s and DAC Beachcroft’s joint initiative “Mentoring the Market (MTM),” which was launched five years ago to support knowledge transfer and professional development among claims and legal professionals within the insurance sphere. It is their positive contributions both inside and outside of Markel which have led to Myhill and Tighe’s recent appointments.

Based at Markel’s London office, Tighe and Myhill will report to Jonathan Pestell, head of Claims – Specialty, and Larkin will report to Thomas Upton, head of Claims – Marine, Energy and Casualty at Markel.

Topics Claims