McGill and Partners pays tribute to COO Gaffney; memorial page established

McGill and Partners COO Simon Gaffney has passed away.

It is understood the popular industry figure passed away at the end of January with a funeral held last week.

Well-known across the London market, Gaffney joined the broking start-up in 2020, initially serving as head of data and technology before taking on the COO role in November that year. 

He joined Warburg Pincus-backed McGill and Partners from Pioneer Underwriters, where he served as group COO.

Prior to this, he had worked at global broker WTW since 2000, holding a variety of roles including COO at Willis Global, and latterly chief data officer at WTW.

Gaffney was one of a new breed of London market professionals who 20+ years ago saw the potential of data and analytics as a transformative force for (re)insurance. He began his career with risk and (re)insurance-focused internet start-up Worldwide Intellectual Resources Exchange, a pioneering late nineties dotcom portal led by Rowan Douglas.

He will be sadly missed. McGill and Partners have confirmed that there are no immediate plans to seek an external successor for the role.

In a statement, McGill and Partners said: “Simon was a much-loved friend and well-respected colleague to both those within the firm and in the wider London and global markets, and he will be sorely missed. The thoughts of everyone at McGill and Partners are with Simon’s wife and children. For anyone that wishes to contribute, Simon’s family have set up a memorial fund in his honour: Simon William Gaffney – memorygiving.com.”