Willis Global Launches New Platform for Growth

Willis Global, the London headquartered reinsurance, specialties and wholesale arm of Willis Group Holdings announced a series of client-centric measures aimed at significantly growing the $40 billion in premiums Willis places annually through its three core segments – Willis Global, Willis North America and Willis International - and maximising the benefit of this for clients.

Published on June 5, 2012

Since his appointment last December as Chairman and CEO, Willis Global, Steve Hearn has led a strategic review of the global businesses to determine the most effective strategy and resultant structure for best serving the needs of Willis’s clients, carriers, employees and shareholders.

Willis Global comprises three core businesses and specialist support functions. Willis Re, one of the world’s leading reinsurance brokers, Global Specialties, which is a market leader in many of its lines of business, including Aerospace, Energy, Marine, FINEX, Financial Solutions and Construction and Willis Faber and Dumas, its leading facultative and wholesale business. All are supported by Global Solutions, Global Analytics and Global Placement.

The new strategy and structure aligns many of those businesses to improve distribution capabilities, cross fertilisation of ideas and, enable a better coordinated approach to clients and carriers.

Announcing the changes, Steve Hearn said:

"The Willis Global strategic review focused on, in particular, how to bring the various businesses closer together, achieving seamless access to our expertise and capabilities.

"The current structure of Willis Global reflected our history as a powerful specialist London wholesaler, grown through diversification and bolt on over many years. The division comprised a series of already successful but siloed and independent businesses. Although we are market leaders in many lines of business, Willis Global’s structure impeded our ability to deliver the best results to our clients and to maximise our own growth potential. Despite already being a highly collaborative organisation, there was clearly opportunity to reflect the changing dynamics of the market we operate in and achieve greater clarity in our offering for all parties.

"Our new simplified structure, the result of extensive dialogue with our clients, carriers and our people, establishes a fully integrated and coordinated set of business units with WillPlace, our client-centric placement platform and a key differentiator for Willis, at the core of the Willis Global proposition. This new structure will be introduced over the next few months, with full implementation due 1 January 2013."