Howden appoints David Shalders as Group COO

London, 5 February 2024 – Howden announces the appointment of David Shalders as Group Chief Operating Officer.  Shalders will join as an executive member of the Howden Group Board as well as joining the Global Leadership Team. 

Shalders joins Howden from LSEG (London Stock Exchange Group), where he currently holds the role of Chief Operating Officer and Head of Integration.  He has over 30 years' experience in integration, technology and operations in the financial services sector having previously worked as Group Operations and Technology Director at Willis Towers Watson and having spent 19 years at The Royal Bank of Scotland.  He has also held roles at UBS, JPMorgan and Accenture.

David Howden, CEO, Howden said: “As we celebrate our 30th anniversary as a business of global scale and reach, David will help us to deliver our ambitious growth plans without compromising the special culture that we have spent the last 30 years building. 

“This is the first time we have appointed a Group Chief Operating Officer to the Board and this important move is a reflection of our scale and the ambition we have to be at the leading edge of the insurance industry.  Most importantly, David is a growth COO.  He has spent his career delivering strategies across multinational operations, data, and analytics to support commercial growth.  He will provide important leadership as we grow scalable, consistent, world-class operations whilst preserving the empowerment which makes us dynamic and innovative.  This balance is critical and, in that regard, David will support me as we continue to harness our strengths as one Howden.”

David Shalders said: “Howden’s unique capital model coupled with a global distribution platform built over decades and filled with talent and expertise, have positioned it as a business that does things differently for clients.  Already the largest privately-held insurance intermediary outside North America, its growth story is phenomenal – a 30-year CAGR of 25% is extraordinary in any book.  But excitingly it has an even more extraordinary opportunity ahead of it to accelerate.  From our first meetings I felt the energy to do more, and to do it with a difference, and I am excited to be a part of that future.”

Shalders will be based in London and report to David Howden once his contractual obligations to his current employer have been discharged.