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Aon reshuffles management at operating units

Posted On: Sep. 24, 2013 12:00 AM CST

Aon reshuffles management at operating units

Aon P.L.C. announced several senior management changes at its operating units Tuesday, notably moving retail brokerage executive Eric Andersen to head its reinsurance brokerage and promoting Mike O'Connor to CEO of Aon Risk Solutions, its large account retail brokerage business.

New York-based Mr. Andersen, who previously served as CEO of Aon Risk Solutions Americas, will be CEO of Aon Benfield.

Mr. O'Connor, who was previously chief operating officer of Aon's risk business, which includes Aon Benfield and Aon Risk Solutions, will return to Chicago from London to take on his new role. That role was previously incorporated into the responsibilities of Steve McGill, group president of Aon and chairman and CEO of Risk Solutions. Mr. Andersen and Mr. O'Connor will both report to Mr. McGill.

Mr. Andersen fills a leadership position at Aon Benfield that was previously occupied by co-CEOs, Dominic Christian in London and Mike Bungert in Chicago.

Mr. Christian will become executive chairman of Aon Benfield International and also become, pending regulatory approval, CEO of Aon U.K. Ltd., where he will head public policy efforts such as seeking to gain more involvement for the insurance market in covering flood risks in the United Kingdom. At Aon U.K. he replaces Rob Brown who will maintain his other role as CEO of Aon Risk Solutions EMEA and will join Aon's executive committee.

Mr. Bungert will become chairman of Aon Benfield, with a focus on the Americas. Longtime Aon executive Michael O'Halleran will remain as executive chairman of Aon Benfield.

The decision to appoint Mr. Andersen to head Aon Benfield reflects the need to offer expertise in helping ceding insurers expand and develop new retail insurance products, Mr. Christian said.

“Clients want to know how to grow their business and develop innovative insurance products,” he said.

Mr. Andersen said his transition to the reinsurance side of Aon's business should be smooth as both retail and reinsurance broking operations now are heavily reliant on data and analytics.

In addition, Bryon Ehrhart, formerly chairman of analytics and investment banking for Aon Benfield, has been named CEO of Aon Benfield Americas.

“These leadership changes represent a natural evolution, as well as our understanding that we must continue to stay ahead of the curve for our clients,” Mr. McGill said in a statement.