We are devastated to announce that Will Bloomer, our Chief Corporate and Legal Affairs Officer, died suddenly and unexpectedly last week.
Those that know him will be aware that he was, first and foremost, a family man, and his wife Nikki and his children have all our love and support. We know that many in the market will offer the same.
Will joined Howden in 2012, when we were a business with a little over £100m in revenue. This week would have marked his 12th anniversary of joining Howden. In those 12 years he has had a very significant hand in everything from our largest and most transformative M&A and equity transactions to his tireless drive to develop our employee ownership structure from 200 employee shareholders to more than 5,000 today. He was a brilliant lawyer with a commercial mind, and a friend to many, many people.
He joined us after 12 years with Heath Lambert, later Gallagher Heath, having started his career as a solicitor with Cameron McKenna, but his impact was far wider than Howden and the messages and conversations over the weekend show just how many people loved him.
We will miss his whip-smart counsel, extraordinary encyclopaedic general knowledge, indomitable and acerbic sense of humour, and his huge heart.
Details of how we will celebrate and remember Will will be shared in due course, and we will follow the wishes of Nikki and his family in this regard.