Mercer chief David Bryant appointed Marsh McLennan Pacific CEO
Marsh McLennan has appointed David Bryant as Pacific CEO – as the company looks to better align its quartet of professional services businesses across the region.
The elevation of Mercer’s Australian chief executive David Bryant to the newly created role follows the recent appointment of new CEOs for International, US and Canada, in what the company describes as an effort toward greater collaboration to better serve the interconnected needs of clients at the intersection of its four businesses.
Marsh McLennan is the parent of Marsh and Guy Carpenter (both focus on insurance and reinsurance services), Mercer (human capital consulting) and Oliver Wyman (strategy and management consulting).
Bryant, who is also Mercer’s Pacific region president (in addition to Australia the geography further covers New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Fiji), joined the human capital consultancy in mid-2020, prior to which he spent over a decade and a half at Australian Unity, including as Chief Executive for Wealth & Capital Markets and Chief Investment Officer. He also currently serves as chairman of the Financial Services Council.
“David is a proven leader in the region, with experience leading multiple lines of businesses,” said newly appointed Marsh McLennan International CEO and former Marsh president Flavio Piccolomini, who will lead the bid for greater collaboration between the company’s businesses. “He has a deep understanding of the challenges organisations in the Pacific face and has already led a variety of collaborative efforts across our businesses with spectacular results.”
Piccolomini took on his new role at the beginning of the month, appointed alongside Pat Tomlinson as Marsh McLennan’s US and Canada CEO.
The organisational shake-up comes as Marsh McLennan last week reported combined revenues in excess of $20 billion for the first time, and follows John Doyle succeeding long-serving CEO Daniel Glaser at the start of the year. Bryant will now report to Piccolomini, who in turn reports to Mercer CEO Martine Ferland.
“Our clients face a range of interconnected challenges from sustained inflation to the potential for geo-economic confrontation and that impacts their approach to risk management, workforce strategies, investments and more,” the Melbourne-based Bryant said upon his appointment. “They need capabilities from across our businesses to tackle these issues holistically, and that is what we will deliver together – greater expertise and client value.”
Speaking on the almost $250 million spent on restructuring costs revealed in Marsh McLennan’s recent 2022 fourth quarter reporting, Doyle stated that the moves were an “offensive rather than a defensive play” and unrelated to economic outlook, with the company seeking to align its workforce and skill sets with the evolving needs of its clients after identifying some opportunities to create greater efficiencies across its businesses by working more closely together.
