A HALVERGATE man has been awarded a directorship of one of the UK's top 25 insurance brokers, the Norwich-based Alan Boswell Group.IT manager Richard Hartley's promotion is one of two appointments which will help the management of the growing company keep pace with its business development.

A HALVERGATE man has been awarded a directorship of one of the UK's top 25 insurance brokers, the Norwich-based Alan Boswell Group.

IT manager Richard Hartley's promotion is one of two appointments which will help the management of the growing company keep pace with its business development.

Richard joined the Alan Boswell Group eight years ago, when the company bought his 1,000-client Insurance Solutions business. A year later he took responsibility for the group's IT and compliance work and, in 2003, began specialising solely in IT.

Educated at the Hewett School in Norwich, Richard lives with his wife Nicola and three children, all aged under 12, at Halvergate. A keen skier, who worked as an instructor in the Alps for a number of years, 43-year-old Richard is a long-time member of the Norfolk Ski Club.

Meanwhile, underwriter Clare Ryalls has been recruited to strengthen one of the group's expanding specialist divisions, commercial insurance. Much of the work Clare will be handling comes from the increasingly busy role the group fulfils as a preferred supplier of insurance to Anglia Farmers, the leading agricultural purchasing co-operative in the UK.

The Alan Boswell Group is ranked among the UK's top 25 independent insurance brokers in the 2008 issue of the top 100 published by industry magazine Insurance Age. The company, which now employs over 150 staff, also has offices in Attleborough and Bury St Edmunds.