The UK's Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) has appointed Aston Lark CEO Peter Blanc as its president for 2022, following the organisation's AGM help on Wednesday (30 June).

Blanc (pictured) will takeover from Aon UK CEO Julie Page, who was appointed president last year. 

He currently heads Chartered insurance broker Aston Lark, which has more than 1,500 staff across 53 locations in the UK and Ireland.

He is also non-executive chairman of Hastings Insurance Services, the broker arm of Hastings Direct, and up until recently served as chairman of the Large Brokers' Advisory Board at the British Insurance Brokers Insurance Association.

Over the next few months, Blanc will work with Page, before taking over as president and chair of the president's forum on 1 January 2022.

Blanc said: "The pandemic has shone a light on how important it is to have insurance solutions that can keep businesses going, so I look forward to becoming President of the CII in 2022 and continuing the professional body's amazing work to examine ways to close the gap between what consumers expect insurance services to entail and the reality.

"As a profession it is vital that we get to grips with the cause of the expectation gap and how to better educate consumers around coverage. Having cover in place is essential if our customers are to do and achieve more in the years to come."

Also during the AGM, Russell Higginbotham was appointed to the role of deputy president. He was appointed as Swiss Re's CEO reinsurance Asia and regional president Asia on 8 July 2019.

CII chief executive Sian Fisher said: "I would like to thank Julie for her excellent, continuing work as president during these challenging times and for her focus on establishing the president's Forum and ways our profession can address unmet needs.

"I look forward to working closely with Peter as our new president in 2022 and look forward to working with him on how our profession can adapt, evolve and innovate our products and services in order to maintain the importance and relevance of insurance to the customers it serves."

A key topic of discussion expected at the AGM was regarding the CII's idea to deregister the PFS. The idea to deregister was properly considered by the PFS board, but it was very clear that members were against it, and so the board chose to vote it down.

The vote was held on 17 June at the board's meeting, but there were several meetings held to discuss the plan prior to making the decision. Last week (21 June), PFS board members voted against the CII's attempt to deregister it as an independent entity.

Following outcry from the sector, financial advisers added their names to an anti-CII proposal website ahead of the body's meeting.

First published by our sister title Professional Adviser