The Ardonagh Group has updated its executive team with the appointment of Diane Cougill as CFO and Sarah Dalgarno as CRO.

Cougill, who begins her new role with immediate effect, was most recently CFO and insurance director at roadside assistance and insurance company, RAC. During her seven-year tenure with the firm, she oversaw the sale of the business out of Aviva to the Carlyle Group and more than doubled the enterprise value of the group ahead of the eventual sale to GIC and CVC.

Prior to that, she previously held senior management roles at a number of financial and energy companies including Aviva and TXU.

Meanwhile, Dalgarno has been named as Ardonagh’s CRO, having most recently served as the group’s strategic risk adviser. 

She originally joined The Towergate Group as CRO in 2015, before being appointed to the position of strategic risk director in May 2016, heading up a legacy resolution unit leading on the simplification of Towergate’s legal entity structure and tackling liabilities including ETV and UCIS redresses.

Prior to that, Sarah spent nine years at AJ Gallagher, latterly as serving as CRO. Previously, she managed the London Market Insurance Brokers team at the FSA.

Commenting on the appointments Ardonagh CEO David Ross said:“Diane has been working closely with the team at Ardonagh over the past couple of months on our full year 2017 and Q1 2018 financial results, closely followed by the completion of a successful £98m bond raise. Her advice and counsel over this time has naturally evolved into this appointment.

“Working closely with Antony Erotocritou as Group Finance Director, Diane is a hugely complementary addition to our finance leadership, bringing unique experience to the Executive table and working closely with our shareholders and the broader investment community.”

He added: “Sarah has spent the last two years tackling a project that only she could have done – the unravelling of legacy issues in Towergate which sat at the heart of the turmoil that engulfed the company back in 2014.”

“There was one person the board and shareholders entrusted this crucial task to; Sarah and her team have successfully liquidated and removed almost 50 percent of Towergate’s legal entities from the organisational structure, with 80 percent of Towergate’s distribution business now being renewed into a single legal entity, culminating in the rollout of Acturis across the advisory branch network,” he continued.

“With the back end of Towergate fixed, Sarah now steps into the CRO role for Ardonagh, where she deploys her commercial approach to working in a regulated environment so expertly,” Ross concluded.