David Shalders is set to join global insurance and reinsurance broking group Howden as its new Chief Operating Officer (COO) once his contractual obligations to his current employer have been discharged.
Shalders will join Howden as an executive member of the Howden Group Board and will also join the Global Leadership Team.
He joins the broker from the London Stock Exchange Group, where he currently serves as COO and Head of Integration.
With more than three decades of experience in integration, technology and operations in the financial services, Howden is confident that Shalders will help the company deliver on its ambitious growth plans as the broker celebrates its 30th anniversary as a business.
Earlier in his career, Shalders served as Group Operations and Technology Director at WTW, and also spent 19 years at The Royal Bank of Scotland. Previously, he has also held roles UBS, JP Morgan, and Accenture.
“This is the first time we have appointed a Group Chief Operating Officer to the Board and this important move is a reflection of our scale and the ambition we have to be at the leading edge of the insurance industry. Most importantly, David is a growth COO,” said David Howden, CEO, Howden.
“He has spent his career delivering strategies across multinational operations, data, and analytics to support commercial growth. He will provide important leadership as we grow scalable, consistent, world-class operations whilst preserving the empowerment which makes us dynamic and innovative. This balance is critical and, in that regard, David will support me as we continue to harness our strengths as one Howden,” he added.
Commenting on his new role, Shalders said: “Howden’s unique capital model coupled with a global distribution platform built over decades and filled with talent and expertise, have positioned it as a business that does things differently for clients. Already the largest privately-held insurance intermediary outside North America, its growth story is phenomenal – a 30-year CAGR of 25% is extraordinary in any book. But excitingly it has an even more extraordinary opportunity ahead of it to accelerate. From our first meetings I felt the energy to do more, and to do it with a difference, and I am excited to be a part of that future.”
Shalders will be based in London and will report to David Howden.
