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AJ Gallagher UK general counsel departs

AJ Gallagher’s (AJG) UK general counsel Bill McGowan has left the business, The Insurance Insider can reveal.  

McGowan joined AJG in June 2012, having previously been general counsel and company secretary at MF Global for two years, according to his LinkedIn profile.  

Prior to that, he was global general counsel at Gartmore Investment Management for two years, and European general counsel at Bear Stearns for three. Earlier in his career, McGowan was European head of transaction management at Lehman Brothers in London from 1998 to 2005. 

Sources have said that a redesign of the structure of AJG's legal entity structure broadly coincides with McGowan's exit.  

The business has a global general counsel and secretary, Walter Bay, who manages the global legal team and advises the group’s board of directors. 

UK HR director Elisabeth Ibeson has also left AGJ after nine years in post. She was previoulsy HR director at Spire Healthcare for two years, and worked in HR at Diageo for 19 years, according to her LinkedIn profile.  

The departures come after AJG’s court battle with Ardonagh, in which its subsidiary Alesco accused its rival of poaching staff. McGowan is known to have worked on the dispute. 

AJG sued Ardonagh for damages after Nawaf Hasan, Gerard Maginn, Peter Burton and James Brewins left Alesco for Ardonagh’s subsidiaries Price Forbes and Bishopsgate.  

During court hearings, internal AJG communications emerged in discovery which showed AJG international CEO Simon Matson using racist language, and other senior staff members using abusive language.

A judgment in that case is expected this month if the two sides do not reach a settlement. 

McGowan was also in post during the bitter dispute between AJG and former CEO David Ross, who defected to Towergate and later became CEO of Ardonagh. The case ended in 2015 and AJG was awarded a £20mn out-of-court settlement. 

In a statement, an AJG spokesperson said: “Elisabeth and Bill have been pivotal in shaping the business into the well-governed, well-managed and highly respected organisation we have here in the UK and we wish them all the very best for the future.” 

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