Stop Press ! Deloitte lures Clissit from Lloyds and Lynch from Axa
Deloitte has hired two high-ranking insurance industry tax experts as
partners in its rapidly expanding UK insurance team.
David Clissitt joins Deloitte in January 2007 from Lloyd’s of London,
where he is currently head of tax and treasury, and Cathy Lynch will
join Deloitte on 1 March 2007 from AXA UK plc, where she is currently
director of group taxation.
Peter Wright, head of insurance tax at Deloitte, said: “David and Cathy
are highly rated tax professionals with a great breadth of insurance
industry knowledge and experience. They will add invaluable expertise
and ensure that Deloitte’s capability to provide insurers with expert
tax advice is second to none. By implementing our strategy to build a
market leading insurance tax practice we are well placed to help
insurers tackle the major challenges and opportunities facing the
sector.”
While at Lloyd’s, David Clissitt has been instrumental in working with
the industry and tax authorities to develop a fair and effective tax
regime that supports the sector. David is well known as an insurance
industry figure outside the UK, including the US Internal Revenue
Service and the OECD. He is also a member of the ABI Tax Committee.
Prior to joining Lloyd’s in 1999, David’s earlier career was with the
Inland Revenue, where he held a variety of operational, technical and
policy posts, including a period of secondment to the European
Commission direct tax team in the mid 1990s.
Cathy Lynch has spent most of her career in the insurance industry,
including Legal & General and KPMG, and has developed significant
experience of tax management issues affecting insurers. These include
tax risk management, tax reporting, mergers and acquisitions, VAT and
Insurance Premium Taxes. As chair of the ABI Tax Committee and
previously chair of the Indirect Taxes Panel, Cathy has contributed to
the development of the UK tax regime for insurers.
The appointments of David and Cathy are the latest in a series of high
level insurance tax hires by Deloitte. On 1 November, Andy Todd joined
as a partner from Aviva plc, where he was director of tax for the
group’s life business. Last month, Elizabeth Punchard, formerly deputy tax director for life at Zurich Financial Services, joined as a principal, and Jessica Ridd-Jones, formerly group tax manager at Legal & General, joined as a director.
Mark FitzPatrick, head of insurance at Deloitte, added: “We have been
very clear in our ambition to build a market leading insurance practice
in the UK, and these latest hires demonstrate significant progress. We
now have a dedicated insurance tax leadership team of nine partners,
principals and directors, all with extensive insurance industry
experience.”