Rural Insurance, the specialist agricultural insurer based in Harrogate, has hired two new senior managers to spearhead the company’s push for growth.
Elaine Smith will oversee the extension into the UK market of the company’s delegated authority strategy, which was successfully launched in Northern Ireland last month, while Alexander Connon will have responsibility for sales development in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Rural MD Simon Stevens said: “Rural has achieved record monthly new business figures for the last four months. We’ve delivered nearly £1million new business GWP, a near 140% increase on 2010, so we’re delighted that Elaine and Alexander are joining the team, and their brief will be to build on these results.”
Elaine Smith was previously head of insurance products at Paymentshield Ltd, where she spent four years, and was also head of reinsurance and capital management at HBOS Insurance. Alexander Connon joins Rural from KGM Motor Insurance. He was also a regional account manager for Highway Insurance Ltd in Scotland.
Mr Stevens said Rural had already taken on four new underwriters in Harrogate to support the new business demand, and in sales and business development, Gill Anderson joined Rural at the beginning of July from Lucas Fettes with responsibility for the North West region.
“We’re building a strong team, and our ambition is to grow our overall market share to 5% and become a top five player within three-five years,” he added.