By David Bull, James Thaler

July 8 - (The Insurer) - James Baird has exited his role as co-CEO of Aventum Group's specialty broking business Consilium with immediate effect, the company confirmed in a statement to The Insurer on Tuesday.

Paul Richards, who served as co-CEO of Consilium alongside Baird, will remain with the business, the statement said.

Consilium said Baird had been "removed from his role as co-CEO and will be leaving Consilium".

For legal reasons, Consilium said it could not provide further comment on Baird’s exit at this stage.

Baird and Richards were both colleagues at Ed Broking – as it was then known – prior to joining Consilium.

Baird was appointed as CEO of Consilium in November 2022 with Richards then joining him as co-CEO a couple of months later in January 2023.

Baird had previously been director of Ed Broking’s Strategic Risk Group and has a background in professional and executive risk, beginning his career at Marsh, before moving to JLT and then WTW. He was also a founding partner at Glencairn Limited, which was acquired by then Willis.

Richards had been executive director and on Ed Broking’s executive committee for almost three years and had previously been managing director of the firm’s professional and executive risks division, after senior roles at WTW and JLT.

At the time of Baird’s appointment, Aventum CEO David Bearman said that the executive would play a “key strategic role” in growing the company’s global broking business with retail broking partners and direct policyholder clients.

This would include responsibility for brining Consilium to new territories and product lines.

In December last year, Consilium reported 54% growth in managed gross written premium for the year ending 30 June 2025 as it affirmed ambitious medium-term growth targets.

The broker – which focuses on property, construction, cyber, financial and other liability lines – handled GWP of close to 700 million pounsa ($885 million) in the year ended June 2024, up 54% year on year.

Consilium said at the time it was now targeting 800 million pounds by the end of the calendar year and 1.1 billion pounds in GWP by year-end 2026. The broker has seen a compound growth rate of 36% for the past five years.

In the 12 months to that point Consilium’s headcount had grown 154 percent to more than 100 staff, with the intermediary launching four new specialty divisions: property, casualty, energy and cargo. It also expanded its reach into the U.S., Canada, Australia and South Africa and secured licenses and opened offices in the Cayman Islands and Channel Islands.