Zurich has appointed Alan Ferguson to head up its sales team in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

He joins from Ascentric where he was head of national sales and will take up his new role on 21 July.

Prior to Ascentric, Ferguson was sales operations director for US insurer The Hartford, and prior to this head of commerce for AXA.

Based from Zurich’s Glasgow office, Ferguson will head up sales in Scotland and Northern Ireland for Richard Howells, UK intermediary sales director and will report directly into Martin McDermott who runs the branch based sales teams around the UK.

Key responsibilities will include leading and developing Zurich’s relationships with key advisers and managing its team of sales consultants dedicated to Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Howells said: “Alan has a proven track record in building strong and long term relationships with key advisory businesses.

“He also importantly shares our passion and commitment to ‘Protecting People’s Futures’ and he will have a huge part to play in delivering on this for our advisers and their customers.”