Group Risk Development has appointed Legal & General’s Colin Fitzgerald to be its new chair.
Fitzgerald, who is distribution director of group protection at L&G, has worked in the employee benefits industry for 40 years, having previously held senior roles at both Unum and Bupa.
He takes over the role from Paul White, who comes to the end of his three-year tenure.
As chair of Grid, the trade body for the sector, Fitzgerald says he wants to focus on highlighting the contribution the group risk industry makes to employers, employees and their families, as addressing its potential for growth.
Grid points out that employers are increasingly focused on workplace wellbeing, and provider propositions have been enhanced significantly over recent years to meet this need.
Fitzgerald says he wants to bring members together to collaborate in educating clients on the key role group risk benefits play as part of an organisational wellbeing strategy.
Fitzgerald says: “What we do matters, and so many more employers, their employees and their families should be benefiting from the products and services we provide.
“I’m proud of how, as an industry, we’ve evolved from the focus purely on paying claims to bringing additional value through a comprehensive range of support services for employees. It’s the most significant change I’ve witnessed in my career. It’s exciting to see how the value-added benefits within group risk support employees of all ages, as well as their families, and a key part of my role at Grid will be to work with the industry to tell this story better.”
