WTW tops aviation bench strength while Gallagher’s Durcan named top broker

WTW has overtaken Gallagher to clinch the top aviation bench strength rating, according to this year’s London’s Leading Brokers Survey conducted by Gracechurch.

Marsh rose four places from the 2022 ranking to take third place in the aviation class, with the report also recognising Aon, Howden and McGill and Partners.

The individual aviation broker ranking was led by Andy Durcan, who joined Gallagher in June 2019.

Martin Collins, who has served as an aviation broker at WTW since 2010, defended his runner-up position from last year, while his colleague Alex Trotter, executive director for corporate aviation, took third place.

Trotter joined WTW in 2019 following six years as senior underwriter, general aviation and US aerospace at Swiss Re.

Representing Aon in fourth was aviation chief broking officer Daniel St Pier, who joined the Greg Case-led firm in 2016 from rival Marsh.

Rounding off the top five individual aviation brokers was Gallagher’s David Wilkie, who also appeared in the 2022 shortlist.

A standout class in this year’s survey was war and geopolitical risk, with all five individual brokers on the shortlist also appearing in the overall top 10 London broker ranking.

The line of business was led by BPL Global’s deputy CEO Charlie Radcliffe, who topped this year’s overall ranking, ousting Maxim de Prins following the latter’s two-year run.

BPL Global retained its leading position in the bench strength ratings for war and geopolitical risk, although the ranking was narrower than previous years.

WTW jumped from fifth to second, with BMS and Aon both up five places to third and sixth respectively.

Gracechurch also recognised Howden, Lockton, Tysers and Costero in the class, underlining the variety of broking houses across the war and geopolitical risk market.

In the individual rankings, BMS’s Charlie Skipworth-Button and Lockton’s Chris Wetherell took second and third place respectively.

The two brokers saw three-way tie as the overall runner-up alongside Bowood’s Oliver Pidgeon, who topped this year’s property ranking.

The shortlist for war and geopolitical risk was completed with Charlotte Hampshire, director at BPL Global – who was also the only female broker to appear in the top 10 overall ranking at sixth place – and Freddie Tyler, divisional director of crisis management at Costero.