Dave Middleton, formerly of Aon and Portus Consulting, has succeeded Stuart Scullion as executive chair of the Association of Medical Insurers and Intermediaries (AMII).
Middleton’s appointment was announced at AMII’s second virtual annual general meeting this afternoon.
Middleton was CEO of Employment Benefit Consultancy, Portus, until the sale to Aon in 2017 after which he integrated both clients and colleagues into Aon.
During his time at Portus, Middleton sat on the committees of both GRiD and AMII and is the former chair of the ‘Raising the Profile’ committee.
He has subsequently taken on roles as executive director of Benefits Advisory Services (BAS) and as a consultant at CWB – both in the employee benefits space – and is also a trustee of charities Smile for Joel and Sporting Minds UK.
Middleton used his inaugural address to members to reflect on Brexit, adding that while the impact of UK’s exit from the European Union had been negligible on the sector so far, it would need to be addressed by the executive board in coming months.
Turning to the pandemic, Middleton praised the sector for being flexible and innovative as it found new ways of engaging customers.
He said that insurers had responded “really well with a willingness to help and support intermediaries and the end customer with telemedicine and additional support”, adding it was commendable that PMI insurers had made a pledge to not profit from the pandemic.
While hybrid working as people work part from home and part from the office would bring in its own set of challenges, Middleton also touched on a top priority for most clients – mental health.
“Mental health and wellbeing are top of most of our client’s objectives. I am currently a trustee of a mental health charity that supports young athletes. I’ve been absolutely staggered by the amount of young people seeking help particularly in the last 12 months.
“Yet as an industry in both healthcare and risk, we’re still very much working in silos and are very much product driven.
“We need to strive for all products to work more in alignment…
“We need to work more closely as physical, financial, mental and social well-being cannot and should not be treated separately.”
And looking ahead, Middleton said it was vital that AMII focused on qualifications across the sector.
“We should now look to develop and train the next generation of AMII membership.
“When I was involved in GRiD, we started a training academy which has gone from strength to strength, and if anyone wants to get involved with that, please do let me know.”
Other members who have been elected as officers to the 2021/22 executive committee include Isaac Feiner, director, Lifepoint Healthcare, Claire Ginnelly, MD, Premier Choice Healthcare, Wayne Pontin, non executive chairman at Sante Group and Ian Sawyer, commercial director, Assured Futures, on the intermediary side and Liam Kennedy, director of health key accounts at Vitality, and Jason Morris, head of intermediary sales, small-mid corporate at Bupa, on the corporate side.
Paul Swanson, owner of Healthwise, has been retained as treasurer for a further period of 12 months or until the next AGM.
These appointments join the existing two intermediary members of the committee whose terms of office haven’t yet come to an end – Alan Mulligan, owner of Personal Healthcare Management and Guy Jones, director at Berwick Devoil Healthcare.
