Arden Insurance Brokers has hired Richard Miller from PIB Insurance Brokers to head up its new trade credit, political risk and surety team.

Starting in the London-based role with immediate effect, Miller is tasked with setting up the unit, which will have a focus on UK businesses looking to sell both domestically and abroad. “Our product suite and range of services will cater for companies of all sizes in a multitude of sectors,” he says.

The unit will offer single risk, whole turnover, excess of loss, as well as political risk products, and will also work with financial institutions, Miller tells GTR.

He joins the company after five years at PIB, where he led the TradeRisk solutions team. Prior to this, he held roles at broker firms Miller Insurance Services and RKH Financial Risks, which has since been merged and become part of Howden Specialty.

Speaking about his move, Miller says: “It’s an opportunity to set-up a specialist, boutique and independent broker in the city of London.”

“There’s also an opportunity to embrace new technology and innovation to help our clients. We’ve got a number of projects in the pipeline, including the creation of integrated financial risk management tools, as well as ancillary services to help businesses. There’s a lot of IT and data analytics we’ll be using and providing to our clients,” he says.

According to Miller, the new unit is now three employees strong, with two of his former colleagues having also joined Arden from PIB.

Nicola Salmon moved to take up the post of trade credit and surety client director in April, having spent the past three and a half years at PIB within its trade credit, political risk and surety team.

With over 20 years of experience in the industry, she’s held similar roles at a number of different brokers, including Arthur J Gallagher, RK Harrison and Euler Hermes. Prior to joining PIB, she had been working as an in-house trade credit/debtor protection specialist at UK-headquartered asset-based lender Ultimate Finance Group.

David Hatt is the third member of Arden’s fledgeling trade credit, political risk and surety unit, having joined as a senior account handler in February.

Arden will likely make further hires within the new unit in the coming weeks and months, Miller says.