Levene sees Lloyd's role as ambassador

Lord Levene of Portsoken,who was yesterday appointed as the next chairman of Lloyd's of London, has set out his vision to become a worldwide ambassador for the historic organisation that has recently entered one of its rockiest phases.

Hinting that Lloyd's has not always been good at promoting itself, Lord Levene said: "It is a first-class product but we need to be able to sell it."

The former Lord Mayor of London, who joins Lloyd's in October, will spend a significant portion of time promoting the organisation with governments and potential customers abroad, and dealing with relevant regulators, including those in Brussels.

Lloyd's is trying to recover from being hit by its biggest ever one-off loss from the US terror attacks on 11 September. At the same time, its management, headed by its chief executive, Nick Prettejohn, and its current chairman, Sax Riley, is trying to persuade the individual names to agree to proposals that would fundamentally alter the shape of the market.

Lord Levene, who has never worked in the insurance industry, avoided entering the fray about the strategy, saying his "understanding of the detail is still to be formed".

Lord Levene, who joins Lloyd's from his position as vice chairman of Deutsche Bank's UK arm, will spend a few months having a crash course in insurance by working at the brokerage Benfield, before he takes up his official duties. Once installed at Lloyd's, the life peer will give up some of his other diverse directorships but will continue to sit on the boards of J Sainsbury and the US company General Dynamics.

The appointment, voted through by Lloyd's council yesterday, is the first time an outsider to the 314-year organisation has been appointed as chairman.