Our Team

Barbara Merry, BA (Hons), ACA

[Chief Executive]

Barbara qualified as a chartered accountant in 1984. She joined the Board on 29 January 2002, having been appointed as Chief Executive on 14 January 2002. She is also a director of the other Hardy group companies. Barbara has extensive Lloyd's experience, having worked at the Corporation of Lloyd's for 14 years, latterly as a general manager in the regulatory division and as managing director of another Lloyd's managing agent.

Adrian Walker, BA (Hons), ACII

[Director of Underwriting]

Adrian Walker, is the Director of Underwriting for Hardy (Underwriting Agencies) Limited. He is also a Director of the other group companies. Adrian joined Hardy in January 2001 and was a director of Hardy Underwriting Group plc until Hardy's redomiciliation to Bermuda. Prior to this appointment he was a non-executive director on the Board of Hardy (Underwriting Agencies) Ltd (appointed 13 April 2000). He was previously employed by Amlin as the underwriter for syndicate 902 (A J Walker & Others), a position he had held since March 1995 having previously been the deputy for the syndicate since 1988.

Mervyn Sugden

[Head of Marine and Aviation, Director]

Mervyn worked with Peter Hardy for 33 years, initially on syndicate 30 and then on syndicate 382 when it was set up in 1975. He is the senior aviation underwriter and a director of Hardy (Underwriting Agencies) Limited.

Robert Kemp, BA, ACII

[Senior Aviation Underwriter]

Robert joined the syndicate in 1996 having graduated with a BA in history from King's College, London. He is now an aviation underwriter for the syndicate, working alongside Mervyn Sugden.

Alex Cullen, BEng (Hons), ACII

[Aviation Underwriter]

Alex joined the syndicate’s aviation team in December 2001. He is now an assistant underwriter covering all aspects of the aviation account.

Kirsty Chan, BA (Hons), ACII

[Assistant Underwriter - Aviation]

Kirsty joined Hardy in October 2001, originally as compliance assistant after graduating in 2000 with a degree in Politics and Economics from Goldsmiths College, University of London. She now works on the Aviation Team.

Edward Barker, BSc (Hons), FCII

[Senior Underwriter, Cargo & Specie]

Edward has worked in the London Insurance Market since 1982. He joined the syndicate in 1992 and is now the senior underwriter responsible for cargo and specie business.

James Blewett, BSc (Hons), ACII

[Cargo and Specie Underwriter]

James joined the syndicate in April 2002. Before joining Hardy, James spent two years with another Lloyd's syndicate and worked in the company market for 10 years prior to that. He is developing a fine art and other valuable collections account for the syndicate.

Gary Chick

[Specie Underwriter]

Gary has been working in the Lloyd’s market in excess of 35 years underwriting Property, Inland Marine and Specie business emanating primarily from the North American continent. He was employed by syndicate 994 (B P D Kellett) from 1979 until 2003 and subsequently by Thompson Heath & Bond (Underwriting) on behalf of various Lloyd’s syndicates. Gary joined Syndicate 382 in February 2006, focussing on jewellers block and other related specie accounts.

Annika Rule

[Underwriting Assistant]

Annika joined Hardy as an underwriting assistant in July 2008. She graduated in law from the University of Leicester in July 2007. She is currently studying for the ACII.

Charles Scott-Hopkins, ACII

[Marine Hull and Liability Underwriter]

Charles joined the syndicate in April 2003. Before joining Hardy, Charles spent 18 years writing a marine hull and liability account at Wellington Underwriting. He is now responsible for underwriting a similar book at Hardy, specialising in small craft.

Charlie Fletcher

[Marine Underwriter]

Charlie joined Hardy in Nov 2008 having spent 15 years as a broker, gaining experience in liability claims and hull business before more recently handling a marine liability account for Willis Ltd. Charlie is currently studying for his ACII.

Adrian Daws

[Underwriter, Financial Institutions]

Adrian commenced his underwriting career during 2000 having previously worked for a recognised financial institutions lead syndicate in an administrative capacity.

Graham Knowles ACII

[Financial Institutions Underwriter]

Graham joined Hardy in December 2008 as an underwriter in the financial institutions team. He has over 20 years' experience in the London market.

Vickie Stacy LLB (Hons)

[Underwriting Assistant]

Vickie joined Hardy as an underwriting assistant in April 2007. She graduated in law from the University of Leicester in July 2006. She is currently studying for the ACII.

George Doughty TD BA MIoD

[Senior Underwriter, Political Risk & Trade Credit]

George joined the Hardy syndicate in April 2004, having worked in the political risk market since 1983. For over 14 years he has been an established and respected London Market lead in political risk specialising in short and medium term contract frustration. In addition he also underwrites trade credit, confiscation, and war on land. He is a member of the LMA Political Risks and Financial Contingencies Business Panel.

Patrick Gage

[Head of D&F Property]

Patrick joined Hardy in 2006 and assumed the role of active underwriter for syndicate 3820 for the 2007 underwriting year. He is now the deputy of the merged syndicate 382 and the head of D&F Property. He is a director of HUA.

Tony Hepburn

[Deputy syndicate underwriter]

Tony has over 20 years of London property market experience. In 1992 he was Assistant Property Manager on Gan Insurance Company’s UK property business. He became Deputy Underwriter of Syndicate 1301 from it’s inception in 2000. He joined Hardy on 1 July 2006 as Deputy Underwriter of Syndicate 3820 and is now responsible for the Facultative Property operations of the merged syndicate 382.

Matthew Town, BA (Hons)

[Direct and Facultative Property Underwriter]

Having graduated from Southampton University in 2001 with a BA (Hons) in Modern History, Politics and Philosophy, Matthew spent six years with two of the major international reinsurers writing facultative excess of loss property reinsurance. He Joined Hardy in June 2007 as an underwriter within the D&F Property team

Fiona Dunn, BSc (Hons) ACII

[Direct and Facultative Underwriter]

After graduating from Manchester University, Fiona started her career at another London market insurer where she spent seven years writing US, international and UK property business. She joined Hardy in August 2008 as an underwriter on the direct and facultative property account.

Sarah-Jane Freer, BSc (Hons)

[Underwriting Assistant]

Sarah-Jane joined Hardy as a non-marine underwriting assistant in November 2006. She graduated from the University of Durham in June 2006 with a BSc (Hons) in Natural Sciences. She is currently studying for the ACII.

Charlotte Macey

[Underwriting Assistant]

Charlotte joined Hardy in July 2008 as an underwriting assistant in the direct and facultative property team. She graduated from the University of Exeter in June 2008 with a BA (Hons) in History. She is currently studying for the ACII.

David Carson BA (Comb. Hons) ACII Chartered Insurer

[Head of Property Treaty]

David joined the Hardy Group in March 2007 and has overall responsibility for the Property Treaty portfolio. A market leader with over 20 years' experience in Lloyd’s, David was previously with Faraday (1997-2007), RA Edwards (1991-1997) and Greig Fester (1987-1991).

Peter Mousley, BA(Hons) ACII Chartered Insurer

[Underwriter]

Peter joined Hardy in 1985. He has experience across several classes of business including marine and aviation but has most recently focused specifcally on the treaty accounts. He now concentrates on the US cat account and crops.

Vincent Kelly

[Underwriter]

Vincent joined Hardy in January 2008. He has over twenty years experience in the London company market writing international property treaty business and has travelled extensively in Europe and Asia.

Chris Wright BA (Hons) ACII

[Underwriter]

Chris joined Hardy’s property treaty team as an underwriter in July 2008. His focus is on North American and international property catastrophe business. Previously at Willis Re (2000-2008), including six years handling Japanese business before transferring to the North American property team, Chris graduated from UCL.

William Ho MSc (Hons), ACII

[Underwriter]

William joined the Hardy team in December 2006. He began his career as a property treaty graduate for Alwen Hough Johnson before moving to Faraday in 2005, joining the property team as an underwriting assistant. Having initially begun on the Direct Facultative account he then went on to specialise in the international property treaty team.

Emma Watson

[Underwriting Assistant]

Emma joined the Hardy team in August 2007 as an underwriting assistant for the property treaty team. She was previously employed by Xchanging Ins-Sure Services, specialising in marine business. She is currently studying for the ACII

Tim Bartleet, MSc

[Non-marine Underwriter]

Tim joined Hardy in 2003 having graduated with an MSc. He spent 21 years with Advent syndicates 780 and 506. He is now responsible for underwriting syndicate 382's non-marine commercial and household property account which is sourced mostly in the UK and Europe.

Kevin Poland

[High Net Worth Homeowners Underwriter]

Kevin joined Hardy in January 2009 having been in the London Insurance market since 1982. Having graduated with a BA(hons) from Sussex University he spent three years Broking before joining syndicate 105 at Lloyd's. In 2000 he and the team joined HSBC as part of their specialist High Net Worth team . He is the senior underwriter within the team responsible for underwriting syndicate 382's Non-Marine High Net Worth account.

Alan Benedikz

[High Net Worth Homeowners Deputy Underwriter]

Alan joined the syndicate in January 2009 with the acquisition of the HNW team from HSBC for whom he had worked since 2003. Prior to this, he spent nearly three years as a HNW and commercial fine art broker.

Keith Boyles

[Claims Manager - HNW Team]

Keith joined Hardy in January 2009 following the acquisition of the HNW team from HSBC whom he joined as claims manager in March 2006. Keith has been in the Lloyd’s and London insurance market since 1983 and has specialised for the majority of this time in household and personal lines claims.

Lisa Kourellias-Holt

[Assistant Claims Manager - HNW Team]

Lisa joined Hardy in January 2009 as part of the specialist High Net Worth acquisition. Lisa has over 8 years experience dealing with insurance claims and 4 years dealing with High Net Worth. Lisa is currently study towards her ACII.

Yvonne London

[Underwriter's Assistant - HNW Team]

Yvonne joined Hardy in 2009 following the acquisition of the High Net Worth team from HSBC. She joined the High Net Worth team in 2001 and has over 30 years of experience in insurance administration.

Andrew Davies

[Terrorism Underwriter]

Andrew joined Hardy in December 2007 as a terrorism underwriter having written this book at QBE since 2002. Prior to that he was a broker for 25 years, specialising in Terrorism coverage since the late ‘80s with Willis and HSBC.Andrew leads the terrorism team within Hardy's speciality lines division.

Frankie Plato-Beale, BA (Hons)

[Underwriting Assistant]

Frankie graduated from the University of the Arts London in 2005. He joined in Hardy April 2008 as a non-marine underwriting assistant having previously worked for an insurance company since January 2007. He is currently studying for the ACII.

Martin Holmes

[Claims Adjuster / Aviation Engineer]

Martin joined Hardy in 1995 as an engineer and provides technical and flight safety advice to the syndicate's underwriters. He has over 30 years' experience in aviation which includes periods as an aviation engineer on a variety of large jet airliners and as a licensed engineer with Bristow Helicopters. Martin has also worked with the Civil Aviation Authority as a safety regulation group surveyor and later joined Lloyd's Aviation Department in London as an aviation surveyor and loss adjuster.

Phil Wright

[Claims Manager]

Phil joined Hardy in July 2003. For 17 years he was the claims manager for various syndicates within the Markel group and has a total of 28 years' Lloyd's market experience.

David Dark, A.C.I.Arb

[Credit Control and Reinsurance Manager]

David joined Hardy as credit control and reinsurance manager in August 2004. He has 30 years' experience in Lloyd’s, most latterly as underwriter and director with both the Crowe and Octavian syndicates. David is an associate member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.

Jamie MacDiarmid, BA (Hons), ACA

[Finance Director]

Jamie joined Hardy in April 2003 as finance director of HUA. He was appointed to the board of HUG on 1 October 2003. He was previously a manager with KPMG, specialising in the insurance sector having qualified as a chartered accountant with Neville Russell in 1996.

Theresa Hutchings

[Company Secretary and Director]

Theresa has worked in the London insurance market for over 30 years and joined Hardy in 1991 to work for the members' agent. She has been company secretary to HUA since 1978. Theresa was appointed company secretary of Hardy in 1997. She is a director of Hardy (Underwriting Agencies) Ltd.

Matthew Simpson, BSc (Hons), FCII

[Chief Information Officer and Director]

Matthew joined Hardy in 1993. He previously worked for Bankside Syndicate Management and Archer Syndicate Management. He is a director of Hardy (Underwriting Agencies) Ltd.

Stuart Blakeborough

[Chief Operating Officer]

Stuart joined the Hardy team in December 2008 as Chief Operating Officer. He has extensive operational knowledge, working previously at Aon as the Reinsurance UK Operations Director.

Dina Mills

[Head of HR]

Dina joined Hardy in July 2008 and has responsibility for Human Resources. She has extensive experience of HR in the financial services industry having worked in lead roles for Swiss Re, the FSA and Aspen. Dina is a chartered member of the CIPD.

Tim Griffin, LLB (Hons), ACII

[Head of Business Development, Director of HUA]

Tim spent 19 years working in compliance and risk management in the Lloyd’s market, joining Hardy in July 2001 as compliance officer. In 2009 he became Head of Business Development for Hardy, with his previous responsibilities being reapportioned during a strengthening and restructure of the executive team.

Anthony Williams, BEc, FIA, FIAA

[Chief Risk Officer]

Anthony joined Hardy in 2006 as group actuary. He was previously an associate director with PricewaterhouseCoopers where he worked for 10 years consulting to general insurers and Lloyd’s syndicates. Anthony qualified as an actuary in 2003. He is a director of Hardy (Underwriting Agencies) Ltd.

Jeremy Messervy

[Technical Information Officer]

Jeremy joined Hardy in September 2008 as Technical Information Officer. He has a BSc in Information Systems and 20 years' IT experience across a number of industries, specialising in the areas of Financial Reporting, Management Information and Business Intelligence.

Diana Pendrich BA (Hons) ACA

[Internal Auditor]

Diana graduated from Manchester University in 1989 and speaks fluent German. She qualified as a Chartered Accountant at Coopers & Lybrand Deloitte in 1992. Diana has specialised in Internal Audit since obtaining her ACA and has considerable global experience in the insurance, banking and manufacturing sectors.

Guy Sorce, Cert CII

[Compliance and risk management]

Guy joined our Compliance team in 2005. He has over 14 years' experience of the general insurance market and has been involved in compliance since 2001, having worked for both composite insurers and regulators.

Gurmeet Natt, BSc (Hons), ACII

[Syndicate Manager 382]

After graduating, Gurmeet spent 4 years working in the Lloyd’s regulatory division, in both investigations and business conduct review. She then worked at the FSA for 2 years before joining Hardy as assistant syndicate manager in January 2001.

Joanna Payne ACII

[Syndicate Manager 3820]

Joanna joined Hardy in July 2006 as syndicate manager for 38Twenty. Previously she spent six years with a Lloyd’s syndicate as an assistant underwriter before moving onto syndicate management. Prior to that she spent three years as an underwriting assistant with an insurance company.

Jon Clayton

[Actuary]

Jonathan joined Hardy in July 2007 as an actuarial assistant. Previously, he has the worked for a number of other Lloyd’s businesses working in the areas of pricing and reserving. He is currently studying to become a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries.

Lestyn Titterton

[Actuarial Analyst]

Lestyn joined Hardy in July 2008 as an actuarial assistant. Prior to this he worked for the Association of British Insurers in Research and for AXA Insurance in Reserving. He is currently studying to become a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries.

Jenny So

[Actuarial Analyst]

Jenny joined Hardy in June 2008 as an Actuarial Analyst. She was previously working for six years at Allianz Australia in the General Insurance market. She has recently completed a Masters of Applied Finance and is currently working towards becoming a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries.

Tina Phillips

[Catastrophe Modelling Analyst]

Tina joined Hardy in February 2007 as a Catastrophe Modelling Analyst. Prior to this Tina worked for Guy Carpenter within their Instrat department after having previously gained over 5 years catastrophe modelling experience within various reinsurance companies operating in the London market.

Tatiana Saldarriaga

[Catastrophe Modelling Analyst]

Tatiana joined Hardy in 2007, with 10 years experience in the Insurance market. The previous 4 years have been within the Lloyd’s market as a reinsurance consultant undertaking R/I programme review and recovery system implementation. Prior to this Tatiana worked for the Colombian office of a worldwide insurance company, responsible for dealing with the technical, administrative and commercial aspects of the insurance/reinsurance divisions, including underwriting, pricing and renewals for the Property and Energy lines.

Manish Parekh

[Catastrophe Modelling Analyst]

Manish joined Hardy in 2007 as a Catastrophe Modelling Analyst. He graduated from Brunel University with BSc (Hons) in Economics, and has spent the last 4 years working in the insurance market.

Andrew Coles LLB(Hons) ACII

[Catastrophe Modelling Analyst]

Andrew joined the Hardy Catastrophe Modelling and Exposure Management team in October 2008. He began his career as a property treaty graduate and has over 8 years reinsurance experience specialising in North American Property business”.

Andrew Moss, ACCA

[Accountant]

Andrew joined Hardy in 2001, and qualified as an accountant in 2002. Previously, he spent 3 years with Hiscox and 2 years with an outsourcing company. Both positions were based in the accounts department.

Allan Pinto

[Syndicate Accountant]

Allan joined Hardy in February 2007. He has spent his entire career in the Lloyd’s market, with over 21 years of accounting experience spread over a number of Managing Agents.

Susan Batchelor

[Accounts Assistant]

Sue joined Hardy in 2000. Previously she worked at NatWest for 17 years, most recently in the NatWest Market office dealing primarily with the Lloyd's auction.

Funda Ekmekcioglu

[Accounts Assistant]

Funda joined Hardy in January 2009 as an accounts assistant. She graduated from the University of Leicester in June 2004 with a BA (Hons) in Geography. She is currently studying for the ACCA.

Adrian Wright

[Project Manager]

Adrian joined Hardy in 2009 as Project Manager. He has over 20 years of systems experience in the insurance and reinsurance markets.

Tony Bennett

[IT Manager]

Tony joined Hardy as IT Manager in August 2004. He has 16 years experience in IT, 14 of which in the insurance market. He is currently studying for E|H and CISSP.

Simon Mccabe, BSc(Hons)

[IT Assistant]

Simon joined Hardy in June of 2007 as assistant to the IT Manager. He graduated from the University of Kent with a BSc (Hons) in Computer Science, and has 3 years IT experience split between the insurance industry and the legal profession.

Tieri Tizard-Varcoe

[Assistant to Barbara Merry]

Tieri joined Hardy in July 2008. She has 10 years worth of secretarial experience. She previously was working in a corporate environment.

Lyn Miller

[Secretary]

Lyn joined Hardy in 2000. She has 30 years' secretarial experience, 7 of which were spent with the Corporation of Lloyd's.