Willis Towers Watson is appointing Mary O’Connor to lead the Client and Business Development function for its Great Britain operations.
O’Connor will also have a seat on the Boards of Willis Limited and Towers Watson Limited, subject to regulatory approval.
She will also continues to co-lead the Global Financial Institutions Industry Group and will report to head of Great Britain, Nicolas Aubert and Global Industries lead, Eric Speer.
O’Connor will relinquish the co-lead role in WTW’s Global Financial Lines business in Corporate Risk and Broking that she had shared with Alexis Faber who will now assume sole leadership of this part of the organisation.
O’Connor previously led WTW’s Great Britain Financial Lines business segment. Prior to joining WTW, Mary was a senior regulator at the UK Financial Services Authority, where she served as head of approved persons, and was formerly a partner at an international law firm.
She was recently named as one of 2016’s 100 most influential women in Re/insurance by Intelligent Insurer magazine. She is a dual-qualified US and UK attorney and has degrees in foreign service and Law from Georgetown University and an MSc (Econ) from the London School of Economics.
Aubert says: “Mary’s experience and client focus will help us to meet our goals of putting clients at the centre of our organisation and support our teams in making a real difference to clients.”
Willis Towers Watson CEO, John Haley says: “Willis Towers Watson is committed to developing an integrated client business model. The development of strong, client-centric leadership in our geographies is one of the keys to our future success and this step moves us forward along that path.”
O’Connor says: “I am extremely excited about the opportunity to bring both the risk and people aspects of our company together, and to help clients access the full breadth of Willis Towers Watson services and solutions.”
