William Miller has been appointed WTW’s Asia Pacific Head of Crisis Management, a new line of business that protects corporate employees from kidnap, ransom and terrorism events, as well as a broader range of risks.

Crisis Management kicks off globally in January after WTW merged its Special Contingency Risk and Terror & Political Violence teams.

The new line offers a 24/7 incident coordination centre called Alert:24, a security risk consultancy that supports clients after an incident to “safeguard staff, reputation and shareholder value”.

“Our offering ranges from risk advisory and insurance design to providing crisis support and indemnification against key financial exposures such as evacuation costs, security incident response, and business interruption,” WTW said.

Mr Miller moves from London to Singapore to take on the regional role from January.

He will oversee delivery of services to multinational clients in “special crime” - kidnap & ransom, extortion, hijack, maritime piracy and political evacuation—as well as terrorism, political violence, active assailant, and accident & health, which includes personal accident, business travel, contingency and sports & entertainment.

Head of Corporate Risk & Broking Asia Luke Ware says WTW has expanded its offering as geopolitical tensions rise, exposing a wider range of security risks.

“The Crisis Management team will support organisations with a highly specialised and innovative proposition which will enable WTW to broaden its client demographic and accelerate our growth strategy in this area,” Mr Ware said.

Mr Miller has headed WTW’s Special Contingency Risk Asia Pacific activities from London for seven years, working across special crime, accident & health, and active shooter insurance lines.

“Being based in the heart of the APAC, we will be better placed to offer our clients a single point of contact for crisis events affecting them in the region,” he said.

“As we see an increase in the number of countries introducing duty of care regulations, ensuring the health and safety of employees is a business imperative.”