Peter Cullum MSc, MBA, FCII, ACIM

Group Chairman, Towergate Partnership

Peter Cullum started his insurance career in 1969 with the Royal Insurance Group. His early career encompassed sales and marketing positions with Commercial Union, and then ITT London and Edinburgh, culminating in his appointment as marketing director in 1988. At the age of 21, he was the youngest person ever to become a Fellow of the Chartered Insurance Institute.

During his time at London & Edinburgh, the company became one of the leading marketing exponents in the UK insurance industry.

In 1991, Peter was headhunted to re-engineer Economic Insurance. The company had suffered from dissipating its energies amongst too many products and distribution channels. Peter led a major review and re-focusing of the company. The result was a return to profitability in 1993.

In December 1993, Peter led the management buyout of the Economic, which was subsequently sold in 1995 to Hiscox plc.  He joined Hiscox as group marketing director, a role he held until he left in 1997 to create Towergate Underwriting Group.  Towergate has gone from three staff to 2,200 and is one of the UK’s leading providers of specialist insurance solutions.

Peter also led the formation of the Folgate Partnership at the end of 2001 and in 2005 merged Folgate Partnership and Towergate Underwriting Group to form the Towergate Partnership making it the largest privately owned insurance intermediary in the UK. Peter was named Ernst & Young’s 2005 Overall Entrepreneur Of The Year winner.