Adrian Norman will become the new MD of Associated Marine Insurers Agents in July following the decision by founding MD Michael Hill to step down. Mr Norman is at present General Manager Corporate Development.

Originally from far North Queensland, he worked for NZI in Australia and Europe before joining Associated Marine’s Sydney office in 1985 as an underwriter.

In 1987 he was appointed Underwriting Manager for Victoria, and in 1988 was seconded to then part owner GRE in Hong Kong to oversee GRE Asia’s development of marine insurance in the region. He hopped between countries before joining Zurich Financial Services, where he eventually took on the position of MD of the group’s Malaysian operations.

Mr Norman returned to Australia last year and was appointed Associated Marine’s GM Corporate Development. In that role his responsibilities included steering the company through financial services regulation requirements.

It’s been a turbulent few months for Associated Marine, which recently became solely owned by Zurich Australia after a protracted struggle with IAG.

Retiring MD Michael Hill says he is “very satisfied” with Zurich’s choice of replacement. “It’s a difficult choice because the MD needs to take into account not only the best interest of stakeholders, but also the well-being of staff and the industry as a whole,” he said. “In my opinion Adrian has all those skills and will be an asset to the company.”