Following successful delivery of its radical IT Transformation, ERS Chief Operating Officer Tim Yorke will depart for new challenges
29 March, 2017: ERS, the largest specialist motor insurance syndicate in Lloyd's of London, is announcing that Donna Willis has been promoted to the role of Chief Operations Officer.
Donna, who is already part of ERS's executive team, currently leads operations at its contact centre in Swansea across claims, underwriting and finance as Operations Director.
The new appointment will see her responsibilities broadened to also bring ERS's IT capability under her remit.
Donna has over 20 years' industry experience, the majority of this spent in senior claims and operations roles including at AXA and QBE. Donna joined ERS from QBE European Operations in 2014 as Head of Personal Injury Claims. In 2015 as part of ERS's transformational change programme she was appointed as Operations Director to head up the company's expanding contact centre in Swansea.
In her new role Donna will develop ERS's IT strategy as part of her additional responsibilities, focussing on maximising the investment ERS has made. This will be delivered through enhancing systems capability and infrastructure to support the business with a continued focus on embedding operational excellence and delivering outstanding service to brokers.
Commenting on the appointment Ian Parker said: "Donna has proven experience in operational and process improvement and she and the team in Swansea have done a fantastic job in establishing it as a true operations hub. Following the migration of our IT infrastructure to Swansea it makes absolute sense to now unite all these areas under Donna's leadership."
ERS is also announcing that Chief Operating Officer, Tim Yorke, is leaving the business at the end of March.
Tim joined ERS in 2013 at the point of the acquisition of the business by Aquiline. Over the past four years he has led the operational and IT transformation required to return the business to profitability, establishing the Swansea operations centre, recruiting staff, improving and migrating processes, and overseeing the replacement of all legacy IT applications and architecture. The final step in this process was the migration of ERS' entire IT infrastructure to the Swansea hub. Tim's achievements at ERS saw him win the Technology Champion of the Year Award at the Insurance Times Tech & Innovation Awards in 2016.
With the transformation work complete, Tim is moving on to new challenges. Tim commented: "I'm very proud of everything that we've accomplished to turn ERS around, despite challenging market conditions. I'm confident that with a clear strategy and a new team in place, the company can move forwards and deliver the levels of performance expected".
Ian Parker added: "The significance of Tim's contribution to this business cannot be overstated. In taking ERS through such a bold transformation he has helped to build a company for the future and that is free to grow without the legacy restrictions that still blight many insurers. I wish him the very best in whatever he chooses to do next – he will not be short of options."
