British insurance executive Patrick Snowball has been named the new MD and CEO of Suncorp, effective from September 1.

He will replace Acting CEO Chris Skilton, who stepped in after John Mulcahy left the company in early March after the company’s value plummeted.

With a $2.1 million starting salary, Mr Snowball has signed on to a four-year term, which includes a trip home to the UK with his family each year.

Suncorp says Mr Snowball will also be paid a $250,000 lump sum payment, up to $250,000 reimbursement, receive temporary accommodation and a car for four months as the family relocates to Brisbane.

Mr Snowball has spent the past two years with UK insurance intermediary Towergate, and is at present its chairman. He was until recently a non-executive director of Jardine Lloyd Thompson.

Before that he was Group Executive Director at Aviva UK and had worked at the UK’s largest insurer and its predecessor companies for 19 years.