Aon is doubling the size of its placement team with a range of newly created roles.

Pacific Region Chairman Steve Nevett says the changes in the way the business interacts with and reacts to clients comes after the company identified a need to provide additional support to larger clients by bolstering its specialist industry practice groups.

Mr Nevett announced around 70 redundancies across Australia last month, so the increased placement capacity will be filled mainly through internal redeployment with “a few” new recruits due to the experience needed in some specialist areas.

The move gives strength to market rumours that Aon will shortly announce the hiring of former Willis Head of Placement Services Maurice Gatto, who left Willis last month.

Aon’s former Chief Placement Officer, Bob Mann, was promoted to Chief Broking Officer from March 1, taking over from the soon-to-retire Steve Lardner.

An Aon spokesman told insuranceNEWS.com.au it was “not in a position to comment” regarding Mr Gatto.

Mr Nevett says the review process also identified claims as an area of focus for the business, which plans to put “a much greater focus around claims advocacy”.

“[The recent disasters] really endorsed the fact that we need to ramp that up.”