Clare Ryalls and Richard Hartley

STOWMARKET underwriter Clare Ryalls, is one of two key appointments announced by independent insurance brokers the Alan Boswell Group.

Ms Ryalls has been recruited to strengthen one of the Bury St Edmunds, Norwich and Attleborough-based group's specialist divisions, while IT manager Richard Hartley has been made a director.

“We are continuing to grow despite the credit crunch,” said upbeat managing director Alan Boswell, the businessman who founded the company 25 years ago. “We will be taking on more staff as and when we can fit them in.”

Underwriter Clare Ryalls specialises in commercial business, one of the group's growing areas of business.

Much of the work she will be handling comes from the increasingly busy role the Group fulfils as a preferred supplier of insurance to agricultural purchasing co-operative Anglia Farmers.

Brought up in Kent, she has 17 years' experience in the insurance business. She has previously worked in London, Chelmsford and Manchester. She commutes from her home in Stowmarket, where she is a keen member of the Stowmarket Striders running club and also enjoys keeping fit and reading.

Mr Hartley joined the Alan Boswell Group eight years ago, when the company bought his 1000-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.

Alan Boswell said Mr Hartley's input was increasingly important because IT systems and e-commerce were central to the Group's success.

“Richard will continue to head up IT but with particular responsibility for development of sales, both from the Web and from our schemes business,” he said.

Mr Hartley, a 43-year-old father of three, was educated at Norwich's Hewett School and lives with his wife Nicola and family at Halvergate. A keen skier, who worked as an instructor in the Alps for a number of years, he is a long-time member of the Norfolk Ski Club