Marsh Names D&O Specialist to London Office

Marsh said it has named Eleni Petros as senior vice president in its financial and professional practice, called Finpro, in London.

Petros specializes in directors and officers insurance for the financial and professional services sector, and will report to Charles Beresford-Davies, head of the financial services division within Finpro.

Petros joins Marsh from Chartis, where she worked for nearly five years as legal counsel and product manager for financial lines. She was previously a legal counsel at Royal & Sun Alliance for three years. Before moving to the United Kingdom, Petros was a senior associate at the Australian law firm Ebsworth & Ebsworth in Sydney, where she specialized in financial litigation and professional indemnity insurance claims.

Significant challenges faced by the banking sector and wider financial services industry over the last two years -- compounded by the economic downturn -- served to highlight the complex D&O risks faced by the sector, Beresford-Davies said in a statement.

The events of the "past 18 months in particular serve to remind us how vulnerable directors and officers are to allegations of wrongdoing and potential claims. In order to secure the best possible terms for their D&O insurance programs at renewal, it is crucial that firms develop a well-defined purchasing strategy, highlighting just how well they manage their D&O risks to their insurers and seek the best insurance cover available to them on the market," Petros said in a statement.

Attempts to reach the company for additional comment were not immediately successful.

Marsh (NYSE: MMC) is the second-largest broker in the world based on 2008 brokerage revenue, according to Best's Review's ranking of global brokers.

(By Meg Green, senior associate editor, BestWeek: [email protected])