Atrium has appointed Peter Laidlaw to be an active underwriter on its roster, starting at the beginning of next year.
Laidlaw’s appointment comes as existing active underwriter Toby Drysdale moves to take on an advisory role as director of corporate underwriting review with responsibility for consulting the Board and providing underwriting review services to the Group.
Richard Harries, CEO at Atrium Underwriters, commented: “I am delighted that Peter has accepted the role of active underwriter of Atrium Syndicate 609. This move comes as part of our long-term succession plan and with over 29 years at Atrium, Peter has long been the standout candidate to take over from Toby.
He added: “Toby has been an exceptional active underwriter and we at Atrium, our Names and Shareholders owe him a huge debt of gratitude. I’m pleased that Toby has agreed to stay on and support the business and we’re very fortunate he has agreed to do so.”
According to the firm’s website, Drysdale joined Syndicate 609 in 1993 and was appointed Deputy Underwriter of Syndicate 609 in 2008. At that time, he was also appointed to the Board of Atrium Underwriters Limited. He has been in his current role since January 2016.
Laidlaw, meanwhile, joined the Syndicate 570 in 1993 and has headed up the accident and health team since 2004. He is a member of the LMA Personal Accident Sub-Committee.
Atrium has been in the headlines here at Reinsurance News for less-than-salutatory reasons this year. In March, the firm was fined over £1m by Lloyd’s for non-financial misconduct after it was found guilty of three charges.
As we reported at the time, the first charge was that Atrium failed to give notice of misconduct to Lloyd’s, the second involved bullying within the company by an unnamed employee towards a junior member of staff, and the third was that the firm had engaged in detrimental conduct related to ‘Boys’ Night Out’ events.
Those events, said Lloyd’s contained, “[…] unprofessional and inappropriate conduct, including initiation games, heavy drinking, and making inappropriate and sexualised comments about female colleagues, which were both discriminatory and harassing to female members of staff.”
These events, said Lloyd’s, had been led, participated in, and condoned by two senior managers who had been in attendance.
