Former Cover-More chief Mike Emmett will become CEO of AUB Group next month as the company continues to make strategic acquisitions, expanding in New Zealand with its largest deal to date.

Mr Emmett, who takes over from Mark Searles on March 11, has also held roles with QBE and consultants EY and Accenture.

He was recruited from QBE by Cover-More in July 2014 to replace Peter Edwards. The travel insurer was sold to Zurich in April 2017, and insuranceNEWS.com.au reported last September that Mr Emmett would step down as CEO in favour of a Zurich global executive.

At QBE he was responsible for complex shared services operations.

AUB Chairman David Clarke says Mr Emmett’s understanding of the “full suite” of insurance services aligns well with the group’s strategy.

“We are delighted to have secured someone of Mike’s calibre, with his strong experience in diversified growth and distributed business models,” he said.

Mr Searles announced in August he intended to step down after leading the company since 2012, with a view to a non-executive director career. He will move to an advisory position with AUB until October.

As CEO he diversified AUB beyond Australian broking to make it a broader provider of risk management services across Australia and New Zealand.

The group confirmed last month it has acquired 100% of BrokerWeb Risk Services, one of New Zealand’s largest brokers, taking over the 50% stake it didn’t already own, in its biggest acquisition to date in dollar terms.

With $NZ150 million ($142 million) in gross written premium, BrokerWeb works with 25,000 mainly large corporate, SME and retail consumer clients.

An employee shareholding structure will be introduced to give the BrokerWeb leadership team “skin in the game”, as Mr Searles puts it.

Founder and CEO David Archer will step down. AUB says he will “remain active” in the business, but recruitment for a new chief is under way.

No other changes to the BrokerWeb leadership team are expected.