Biba 2026: Gallagher’s retail restructure opens the door to new talent – Nick Harris

Biba Conference 2026: Broker Gallagher’s retail division restructure – which saw it move from a geographical focus to instead centre its operations around customer segments – has enabled it to “attract the very best talent in the market” and “recruit from our competitors” due to increased market awareness around its service areas, according to Nick Harris, the firm’s UK and Ireland retail chief executive.

In November 2025, Insurance Times revealed that Gallagher had created two new trading divisions aligning to different client segments – a commercial division and a corporate division, led by managing directors Gary Fletcher and Simon Waine respectively.

The commercial division specialises in the insurance and risk management needs of mid-market organisations that are managed by Gallagher’s office network across the UK.

Meanwhile, the corporate division concentrates on large clients and provides tailored risk management and insurance propositions.

Speaking exclusively to Insurance Times at this year’s Biba Conference (13 May 2026), Harris explained that “five months in, [the restructure is] going really well” and – as a secondary impact – had improved Gallagher’s ability to attract relevant talent.

He explained: “The big thing for me is certainly the corporate space. No one saw Gallagher as a top end of town corporate player. [We have] hundreds of clients in that space. So, by separating it [out as part of the restructure], this means we can then attract the very best talent in the market. It’s allowed us to recruit from our competitors into that space.”

Describing Gallagher as “a family”, “entrepreneurial” and “brilliant”, Harris added that despite the business’ scale – which amounts to £1,734.7m in revenue according to last December’s Top 50 Brokers 2025 report published by Insurance Times – the broker has so far remained a “well kept secret” in UK general insurance.

He continued: “A lot of people don’t know Gallagher – it’s a well kept secret. The danger is sometimes we’ve kept it that way because we love it and we’re so protective of it. But it’s a wonderful place to be.

“It’s a very large company. It’s very successful. And I think sometimes there’s a fine line between shouting from the rooftops arrogantly and shouting the rooftops proudly. We’re very proud of what we do and I think that, for us, it’s just making sure we maintain that fine line.

“Also [making] sure people realise we’re a very big firm, very successful firm – and we want to keep growing. We want people to join us on our journey.”

M&A as an option

An alternative way that Gallagher is embracing talent is via acquisitions – such as its April 2026 purchase of commercial intermediary Bridge Insurance Brokers.

However, acquisitional growth is not a central driver for Harris and although it is something constantly under review, Gallagher will not be adopting a frenetic pace of purchasing any time soon.

“We’re very fortunate,” Harris said. “We can buy pretty much whoever we want, which allows us [to] then pick and choose what we want. So rather than just buying something for the sake of buying it to make us bigger, we want to buy something that’s the right cultural fit.

“We’ll look at most things. If something comes our way that’s specific in a certain area, that fits our appetite and also enhances our business, we’ll have a look at it.

“In retail, we have specialisms, but we’re more generalist [in] what we look at. We’ll look at anything that’s available. We bought Bridge Insurance Brokers this year. We bought a couple of small businesses last year. We’ll pick and choose and buy what we think is right.”

Despite Harris’ leisurely perusal of available M&A opportunities, he acknowledged that “the market has slowed right down” compared to previous peaks of broker buying pre and post-Covid-19.

He added: “There’s a lot less to buy. Multiples are a lot different from what they were few years back. So, we’re quite happy with our position to be able to just pick and choose what we want.”