Trade credit insurer Atradius has named Mike Thomas as head of risk services and special products for the UK and Ireland.

He takes over the role from Marc Henstridge, who was appointed Atradius’ chief insurance operations officer in January.

Thomas joined Atradius in 1999, initially as an underwriting and recovery specialist. He was later made responsible for managing higher-risk multinationals within the automotive, IT and industrial sectors. In 2014, he was appointed head of Atradius’ risk services global platform, optimising the firm’s risk offering for large multinational companies.

Commenting on his new role, Thomas says: “Atradius’ unique selling point is the value brought by its exceptional people. My key focus is to continue to develop our people to continue to deliver the exceptional service that has become synonymous with our name. As a business, we cannot stand still but we must also ensure that our best-in-class knowledge, expertise and service ethic is retained and our people both flourish and excel. Training, development and creating the appropriate culture is key to allowing the hard numbers to be met.”

In other news, Atradius has also named Vincent Ku as new country manager for Hong Kong and Taiwan. He replaces Matthew Cockerill, who left the company late last year to join Coface.