Gallagher Appoints Practice Leaders From Assured Partners; Willis Makes Moves Across Corporate Risk & Broking North America Growth Leadership

Gallagher Appoints Practice Leaders From Assured Partners

Gallagher is expanding its US retail brokerage capabilities with the appointment of the new practice leaders.

Alush Garzon, managing director, manufacturing, brings extensive experience developing comprehensive risk management programs for manufacturers and has a firsthand perspective in the sector from his time as a manufacturing engineer.

Trevor Gilstrap, managing director, energy, joins Mike Hogue as practice leader to deepen Gallagher’s expertise in the energy sector. Gilstrap advises energy clients across the risk and insurance spectrum, with a focus on upstream and midstream organizations and the contractors that support them.

Andy Engardio, managing director, transportation, joins Chris Demetroulis and Kevin Woods as practice leaders to enhance Gallagher’s expertise in the transportation sector. Engardio draws upon experience as a cargo claims adjustor and fleet underwriter in crafting risk management programs tailored for transportation and logistics companies.

Garzon, Gilstrap and Engardio most recently served as their respective industry vertical leaders at AssuredPartners prior to Gallagher’s acquisition of the firm in 2025.

Willis Makes Corporate Risk & Broking North America Growth Leadership Appointments

Willis, a WTW business headquartered in New York City, appointed new leadership across Corporate Risk & Broking North America.

Michael Butch joins the business as growth operations leader for North America. In this newly created role, he will drive alignment, efficiency and consistency across growth initiatives to help accelerate pipeline development and conversion, Request for Proposal (RFP) adoption and recruitment. Butch has over 20 years of experience in sales analytics, financial analysis and data-driven decision-making. He joins Willis from Marsh, where he most recently served as North American sales analytics and insights lead.

Jim Blaney has been appointed growth enablement leader, North America. He will focus on equipping teams with the tools, insights and capabilities needed to support new business generation, client retention and disciplined sales execution. Blaney has held multiple leadership positions throughout his career at WTW and most recently served as head of sales and client management. He brings deep expertise in organic growth, disciplined sales execution and specialization-led strategies.

Butch and Blaney join Brian Hetherington, strategic growth leader, North America, as part of the North America Growth leadership team, reporting to Paul Graziano, chief growth officer for Willis.

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A.J. Gallagher