Gallagher Re CEO James Kent to retire

James Kent, the CEO of Gallagher Re, the reinsurance broking arm of the Gallagher broking group, is retiring and will not take up the new global role that he had recently been handed.

Kent had been CEO of Willis Re since 2018, continuing as the CEO of Gallagher Re when the acquisition of that reinsurance brokerage occurred.

Gallagher Re has confirmed his departure, saying, “James Kent has confirmed his plans to retire from Gallagher with effect from 1 June.

“While we are sorry to see him leave our firm, we respect his decision to take a well-deserved retirement following his successful career in the industry.

“He leaves with our thanks for all that he has achieved in his time with  Gallagher and we wish him well for the future.”

Kent had a long career in reinsurance broking, having spent some 13 years at Aon Re, after which he joined Willis Re in 2004.

At Willis Re Kent became President of the brokers’ North American reinsurance business in 2010, before which he spent some time leading the Willis Re Bermuda operations.

Recently it had been announced that Kent was being promoted to a new Gallagher group role, that would see him helping to further the firm’s activities in helping clients access diverse sources of risk finance, and investors access insurance risk as an asset class.

That new role, as CEO, Global Insurance Strategic Relationships at Gallagher, will now go unfilled it seems, as Kent has elected to take this moment to stand down from his career in reinsurance broking.

As previously announced, Tom Wakefield, the current UK CEO of the reinsurance broker, who after a transition period will succeed Kent in the role of CEO of Gallagher Re on June 1st.