Brightside appoints Derek Henry MD Broking

Brightside Group announced today that Derek Henry has been appointed managing director of broking, and will join the business on 1 September. His role, which is subject to regulatory approval, covers full P&L responsibility for the business and he will sit on the Board and Executive Committee. His major responsibilities will be to drive trading and oversee insurer relationships and key partnerships.

Henry replaces Russell Bence, who has left the Bristol-based broker to pursue other interests. 

Brendan McCafferty, Group CEO, said: I’d like to thank Russell for his contribution to Brightside during the last three years and wish him well for the future.” 
 

Commenting on Derek Henry’s appointment, Brendan said: “I am delighted to welcome Derek to the Executive Team and the Board and look forward to working with him to move Brightside into the next phase of growth and investment.” 

“He is an experienced insurance executive and highly-regarded in the market. He will bring a great blend of trading and strategic thinking to Brightside.”

Brendan added: “Derek knows the Brightside business well and brings a strong combination of skills and experience running retail businesses in both personal and commercial segments, trading and business development, and managing critical insurer and partner relationships.”

Derek said “I am really excited to be joining Brightside at this time. The business has a great blend of personal and commercial business and I am looking forward to playing my part to accelerate our growth and achieve the ambition to be one of the best multi-niche, scale brokers in the market.”

Brightside also announced that, subject to FCA approval, James Slade has been appointed Chief Financial Officer for the Group. Brendan explained that James has been interim CFO and this is an internal promotion. “James has proved to be an extremely capable interim CFO and I’m very pleased that he now steps up to the CFO role on a permanent basis.”

Brendan said: “Alongside Richard Beaven as COO, we have an exceptional senior management team to power Brightside’s ambitious future plans.”  

About Derek 

Derek previously led Ardonagh's group’s relationship with the insurance market and sat on the Executive of the Ardonagh MGA.  He began his career at the RAC in a finance role and eventually became commercial director of the FS division. He joined Capita Insurance Services in 2006, becoming MD commercial insurance. He then joined Junction as corporate partnerships director before leaving in 2012 and joining Towergate. Derek left Ardonagh in 2018 to set up his own Advisory business, which included projects with Aviva, Brightside and advising private equity firms.

About James 

James Slade was a chartered accountant at Deloitte, before joining Friends Life in 2007 to undertake various finance roles over eight years to 2015. James joined the Brightside finance team in 2015.