market talk


Be Wiser Race Day at Newbury New branch network at AXA


ndover-based personal lines broker Be Wiser Insurance Services celebrated its 4th Birthday in style by hosting a race day at Newbury Race Course for one hundred guests on 9 June. The guest list included insurer attendees together with other key suppliers, as well as Be Wiser directors and staff. (Plus one representative of the insurance press, although I should point out that my previous business dealings with this team go back some way). Be Wiser sponsored three races on the day - one of which


BeWiser celebrates 4thBirthday A


in association with


produced the rarity of a dead heat, hence two jockeys on the podium in the photo. Special guest of honour for the day was former jockey Joe Mercer OBE - 2,810 winners while in the saddle - and a total of £1,600 was raised on the day for the two charities he had selected - Air Ambulance and The Injured Jockeys Association. Chairman Mark Bower-Dyke always looks cheerful at functions such as this, and on this occasion that may have been reinforced by the Be Wiser draft financial results for the year just ending. A 116% increase in


Mark Bower-Dyke (second from right) with guest of honour Joe Mercer (third from left), together with the dead-heat jockeys


turnover (up from £5.6m to £12.1m).


There are now over 200 staff.


Mr Bowyer-Dyke is particularly proud of the training facility that Be Wiser has developed. Almost 90% of staff have a recognised insurance qualification. “With


Commercial lines branch


appointments at AXA C


EO Amanda Blanc recently confirmed the branch manager appointments for the new branch network of AXA Commercial Lines. Strong local relationships with brokers are the aim, supported by local decision making. “Our branches are designed to operate as efficient trading businesses. The people who


Amanda Blanc 8 insurancepeople JULY/AUGUST 2011


are leading them know what our brokers need and have the drive and experience to successfully deliver. I’m confident they will lead their teams to provide excellent customer service and profitable growth for AXA.” Linda Courtney is BM for the re-launched London branch, responsible for the London market. She originally joined eleven years ago from Prudential. Previous roles include regional manager for the South region. Barrie King in over 30 years’ commercial intermediary business experience worked at several major insurers before joining in 2006. As Birmingham BM, his responsibility is for the Midlands, SW England and Wales.


John Maguire, a former


president of the Glasgow institute (2004-5), joined 31 years ago. Glasgow BM, he is responsible for the Scottish market.


Andy Halstead began his career 24 years ago with Provincial and has worked in local markets including Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds. He becomes the Leeds BM covering the Leeds and Newcastle markets. Martyn Grime is BM at Ipswich, responsible for East Anglia. He joined 32 years ago and started his career with GRE. Previous roles within AXA have included leading trading branches and broker relationships. Darrell Sansom joined 11 years ago and was most recently distribution director for the commercial affinity


business. He is responsible for Bolton plus small broker relationships nationally. Simon Hodgin is BM for Manchester and a former president of the CII


Manchester institute (2007). His 23 year career includes time at L&G and GRE, and the last 16 years have been spent in the North West. Ed Pugh is responsible for the Reading market and M4 corridor. He joined this year from Hiscox where he was sales and marketing manager of the event division. Prior to that he was business development and marketing manager at Howden. Insurance is his second career having spent eight years as an army officer, graduating from Sandhurst in 1998.


four full-time training staff and a dedicated building providing ‘classroom’ facilities, we are justifiably proud of the


investment made in training, and have been delighted with the progress of the staff and the business in the past four years.”


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