Coface has appointed Jon Lindsay as managing director of its UK and Ireland businesses.

Lindsay, who was the country director for UK and Ireland for the credit insurer Atradius, will take over from Malcolm Guest, who has seen Coface rise to strongly challenge the two largest credit insurers in the UK.

“Jon’s appointment reconfirms our commitment to establishing our UK and Ireland business as a market leader and to growing a profitable business based on the foundations of excellent credit insurance, credit management, factoring and information,” says Jerome Cazes, chief executive officer of Coface Group.

While with Atradius, Lindsay led the NCM and Gerling integration, achieving market leadership in 2004. Previously, Lindsay was head of business development for Courtaulds Fibres. His career in Courtaulds included extensive operational experience as managing director of both small and medium sized materials businesses. In his early career he worked as a civil engineer on overseas projects in the Middle East and the Caribbean for Taylor Woodrow.

Guest has been with the UK company since it was originally purchased from the TSB Group in 1991, and for the last three years as managing director, has seen the company grow to become the number three in the marketplace. As a member of the General Steering Committee of Coface’s Credit Alliance he has seen the group grow substantially over the last 10 years to become one of the world’s leaders. He will be spending the next two years with Coface in South Africa, where Coface is building a strong credit management platform.

Lindsay will be joining Coface in March and Guest will work alongside him for a period before moving to South Africa.