Mike Parrish has been named the chief executive officer of Howden U.S., a new U.S. retail broking business of Howden, and he will start in September subject to his “fulfillment of relevant contractual obligations.”
Meanwhile, Parrish—previously the head of rival broker Marsh’s Florida zone—is being sued by his former employer for allegedly violating his non-compete and non-solicitation agreements as he and Howden coordinated an exodus of more than 100 employees to Howden U.S., Marsh claims.
Howden on Aug. 4 announced Parrish is slated to lead the U.S. broking arm as “one of the industry’s most successful business leaders, with a proven track record of scaling highly successful U.S. operations.” With the move into the U.S., Howden said it brings “ambitious growth plans,” and a “fresh choice for talent and clients to the U.S. retail broking market.”
“Our doors are now open. We can’t wait to get started,” said CEO David Howden in a statement.
Of Parrish, who had been with Marsh since 2021 and was previously at Aon for 19 years, David Howden added: “In Mike we’ve found one of insurance’s most outstanding leaders, with an owner’s mindset and an unrivalled track-record, who wants the freedom to build a business that is an alternative home for talent and clients in the U.S.”
However, Marsh USA LLC, according to its suit filed late last month in U.S. District Court for the South District of New York, has alleged Parrish and direct reports Giselle Lugones, Robert Lynn and Julie Layton (also named as defendants) “spearheaded an unlawful scheme to lift out all of Marsh’s Florida zone employees.”
According to Marsh, Howden came to its plan following a failed attempt early this year to acquire U.S. insurance broker Risk Strategies.
“This time, rather than investing the time and resources to build a U.S. presence, Howden hatched an unlawful scheme to poach Marsh’s employees, clients, confidential information, and goodwill,” Marsh said in the lawsuit. “Beginning March 2025, defendants quietly and surreptitiously laid the groundwork to lift out the entire Florida Zone.”
According to the lawsuit, the resignations began to flow in on July 21. By the end of the day, 90 had resigned, including “the vast majority of the employees in Marsh’s Florida zone, who resigned en masse.”
“In some groups, every single employee resigned,” Marsh alleged, adding many Marsh employees received job offers from Howden without applying or interviewing. “The only way Howden could have executed on a raid like this was with defendants’ active participation—sharing Marsh’s confidential information to Howden and directly or indirectly soliciting them.”
Howden in its announcement of Parrish said it already had “substantial operations” in the U.S., operating for more than 10 years through managing general agency Dual. More than a quarter of Howden’s revenue comes from the U.S., it said.
The case Marsh USA LLC v Michael Parrish, Giselle Lugones, Robert Lynn, and Julie Layton, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 25-cv-6208
Howden on Monday also named Jim Hays as vice chairman of Howden Group Holdings. Hays was previously CEO of Hays Company, an insurance broker he founded in 1994 and sold to Brown & Brown in 2018. He then served as vice chair and was a member of the board at Brown & Brown.
*This article was originally published by Insurance Journal, CM’s sister publication.