BRIERLEY Hill insurance company Commercial Express has hired nine new staff as part of its expansion bringing the total number of employees to 45.

The appointments, which include new members for each of Commercial Express’ six underwriting teams, and account management and claims teams, come following a period of growth for the business, which has seen a wave of new business enquiries alongside greater demand from existing clients, as well as the launch of a new, free Training Academy for its agents.

Leading the underwriting team appointments is Brook Poxon, who joins Commercial Express as Property Owners underwriter after four years working as a commercial executive.

Joining the Liability team as underwriters are Helen Bingham and Zarrar Tariq. Helen brings with her over 22 years’ experience in the insurance industry, the latter 15 of which were spent within liability insurance at Footman James and Aviva. Meanwhile Zarrar joins from AJG where he spent three years as a broker, after a decade working as a commercial underwriter for RSA Group.

Simon Smith joins the business as Commercial Combined underwriter as a specialist in underwriting for SMEs and brings with him over 28 years’ experience in the industry.

Sarah Dillon, who began her career in insurance seven years ago before becoming an underwriting technician in 2014, joins as SME underwriter, whilst Luke Hanson joins as Catering underwriter following a role in commercial sales at The Insurance Factory.

And joining the Renewals underwriting team is Lorraine Green, who offers 15 years’ experience in the industry, originally starting in claims before moving into underwriting in 2011. Lorraine joins the business from AIG Europe.

The final two new appointments to the business are Paul Ingleby who joins Commercial Express as an account manager, and Adam Malone who takes the role of claims manager.

Paul re-joins the business after a two year stint at M&P Insurance, prior to which he worked as senior business development manager for Commercial Express. And Adam brings over 10 years’ experience in a variety of claims, operational and supplier management roles to his position, which will see him manage and oversee the full claims operation for each client.

Managing director of Commercial Express, Duncan Pritchard said: “Investing in the team is key to the success of Commercial Express. We’ve had a very good past 12 months, which has seen us take on a total of 15 new recruits, owing testament to the hard work that everyone in our respective teams have been doing together to help grow the business.

“We’re pleased to be in a position to be able to take on a new team member for each team and the level of experience that each person brings with them will prove invaluable in our mission to always provide the very best in customer service. We’re looking forward to seeing what the next twelve months bring.”

Commercial Express is a managing general agent in the insurance industry, based at The Waterfront in Brierley Hill. The business currently holds the Silver award for Investors in People and prides itself on being able to offer ongoing training and support to both staff and customers to ensure each person is fully equipped to provide the best service possible. For more information, visit www.commercialexpress.co.uk.