The Chartered Institute of Loss Adjusters (CILA) elected Steven Wallace, managing director of McLarens UK & EMEA, as president during its Annual General Meeting (AGM).
The appointment follows the tenure of Dr Marc Sweeney of Davies, who served in the role for the customary one-year term. Assisting Wallace in his capacity as president is Adam Humphrey, the newly elected vice president and CEO of GRS International, a subsidiary of the GRS Group.
In his new role, Wallace will collaborate closely with recently appointed executive director John Bissell, who joined earlier in the month. His responsibilities will extend across CILA’s activities related to qualifications, professional standards, technical knowledge, special interest areas, and industry engagement. Wallace will focus on enhancing CILA’s membership and presence internationally, including specialized sectors like aviation, natural resources, and marine.
With over 30 years of experience, Wallace is primarily a practitioner loss adjuster and has held significant management roles in international adjusting firms. He previously served as the president of the Insurance Institute of Northern Ireland. Wallace also has a longstanding association with CILA, having first qualified as an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Loss Adjusters (ACILA) in 1997 and later becoming a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Loss Adjusters (FCILA) in 2002.
Wallace was appointed during CILA’s annual conference, held on September 14, 2023, which saw participation from over 200 loss adjusters. Discussions during the conference encompassed various critical topics such as cyber claims, business interruption, lithium battery fires, and aviation claims, along with a dedicated session on the FCA’s Consumer Duty.
“It’s an honour to be elected to become the CILA president for the current term. CILA is hugely important in maintaining and reinforcing the standards of the profession and in delivering a world-class qualification framework,” Wallace said. “The nature of risk is ever evolving, from climate change and cyber, to geo-political tensions and social unrest. As adjusters, we have a crucial role to play in supporting both insurers and policyholders in managing these issues and the claims that emerge from them.”
Executive director John Bissell also thanked Sweeney after serving his one-year term, noting that CILA is looking forward to working with Wallace as it reviews its objectives and development plan.
“Steven is a highly respected loss adjusting professional and is a long-standing CILA advocate,” Bissell said. “He’s well placed to support the organisation in his role as president and will do so at an important time for CILA and the broader profession. Having worked on some of the highest profile losses in the UK, he’s a great example of the benefit and technical expertise that chartered loss adjusters bring both to the insurers and policyholders.”
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