Marsh & McLennan Names Ian Lang Board Chairman, Replacing Stephen Hardis

Marsh & McLennan Cos., the second- biggest insurance brokerage, named U.K. legislator Ian Lang as the next chairman of the board of directors.

Lang, 71, will become chairman in May when Stephen Hardis, 75, steps down because of the company’s retirement age, the New York-based broker said today in a statement.

Marsh & McLennan gets about one-sixth of its revenue from the U.K., almost the same amount as the rest of Europe. About half the sales come in the U.S., where the insurance market has been contracting as companies buy less coverage, forcing down rates for policies.

A chairman with ties to the U.K. is “certainly a positive,” said Mark Dwelle, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets who has a “sector perform” rating for Marsh & McLennan. “They have a sizable presence in the London market and work with Lloyds.”

Lang, who began his career as an insurance broker, is a Conservative member of the House of Lords, the upper chamber of the British Parliament where he is known as Lord Lang of Monkton. He was a representative in the House of Commons for Galloway and Upper Nithsdale from 1979 until 1997, when he lost his seat. He served in the cabinet as president of the board of trade and secretary of the state for trade and industry from 1995 to 1997.

Lang joined the Marsh & McLennan board in 1997. The company keeps chairman and chief executive officer roles separate, it said in today’s statement.

The No. 1 broker, Aon Corp., expanded in the U.K. with its 2008 purchase of Benfield Group Ltd. Chicago-based Aon also gets about one-sixth of its revenue in the U.K.

To contact the reporter on this story: Sarah Frier in New York at sfrier@bloomberg.net.

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