Jennifer Rigby appointed Lloyd's of London chief operating officer
Rigby's appointment comes amid a wave of change that has swept over Lloyd's.
Lloyd’s of London announced that Jennifer Rigby has been appointed chief operations officer (COO). She has been performing the role on an interim basis since March 2018, following the departure of former COO Shirine Khoury-Haq. Her assigned area of activity as Lloyd’s COO includes business transformation, global operations, data, information technology, innovation and corporate real estate.
Rigby joined Lloyd’s in May 2017 as chief information officer. She began her career at the BBC and held several senior roles in the public sector.
“I’m delighted to become Lloyd’s chief operations officer and to continue the work to build our foundations as we move into the future,” said Rigby in a statement. “The Operations function is vital to delivering for Lloyd’s today and in shaping and executing the strategy for tomorrow. It’s my privilege to take this role at such an exciting time.”
Related: Lloyd’s of London to add women to governance committee
Changing tides
Rigby’s appointment comes amid a wave of change that has swept over Lloyd’s.
In May, CEO John Neal presented a strategy document setting out how Lloyd’s could modernize its market and fend off rivals that currently undercut it. Notably, Neal said he planned to cut the cost of insuring risk from 39% of premiums to 30% within the next two years before lowering it again to 20% within five years
In June, Neal had to deal with the aftermath of a Bloomberg Businessweek article that revealed endemic sexual misconduct in the Lloyd’s of London insurance market. Lloyd’s announced shortly afterward that it will publicly name and shame anyone it bans from its insurance market for sexual harassment. That same month, he also warned that the 330-year-old insurance market must evolve and evolve fast or risk driving itself into irrelevance at the Rising Professionals’ Global Forum.
“As a sector, our choice is to continue with business as usual and become irrelevant or change and realize the enormous opportunity in the world of risk,” said Neal.
Related: Lloyd’s CEO John Neal says its market must evolve or risk irrelevance