Founded

1828

Headquarters

London

Key People

John Haley, CEO; David Merker, region manager, Aerospace North America

Number of Employees

46,600

Website

Willis Towers Watson

Willis Towers Watson

Willis Towers Watson’s Global Aerospace division is one of the world’s largest primary and reinsurance brokers with services for aviation, space, and other markets. At its 35 locations, it employs more than 300 aviation specialists who are responsible for more than $1 billion in premiums annually.      

While the company today is a result of multiple mergers and acquisitions, it can trace its history to London merchant Henry Willis, who began selling imported goods in 1828, then brokering insurance for marine cargo through Lloyd’s in 1841. Moving into hull insurance, he established Henry Willis & Company shortly thereafter. 

More than 150 years and several mergers later, the company became Willis Group in 1998, amassing one of the largest marine and aircraft brokering portfolios in the world. Willis was the broker for the Titanic, settling the $1 million hull claim within 30 days of the ship’s April 1912 sinking; it was also the broker for NASA’s lunar rover, which was used on multiple missions to the moon in 1971 and 1972; and Malaysian Airlines Flight MH 370, which disappeared en route to Beijing in 2014. 

Willis also moved into the reinsurance market in the late 1800s, providing reinsurance solutions for marine vessels in Japan, Germany, and the U.K. Between the world wars, Willis expanded into South America, Europe, and Asia, adding construction and airline reinsurance after World War II. In the 1980s, Willis’s reinsurance business eclipsed marine brokering for the first time.   

In 1878, after being appointed actuary of Manchester Unity of Oddfellows fraternal order, Reuben Watson formed what became the world’s oldest actuarial firm, R. Watson & Sons. The firm was renamed Watson Wyatt in 1995 after a merger with Washington, D.C.–based Wyatt Company, which was founded in 1943. 

In 1934, a Kansas City, Missouri–based insurance company called Towers, Perrin, Forster & Crosby was founded to provide reinsurance and life insurance services, although later it diversified into pensions and employee-benefit plans. The company name was shortened to Towers Perrin in 1987 after it acquired two other employee-benefit companies.  

Towers Perrin and Watson Wyatt merged to form Towers Watson in 2010. In 2016, Willis Group merged with Towers Watson to create Willis Towers Watson.  

The company recently launched several programs tailored to business aircraft operators, including the Cyber Guard cyberinsurance solution in 2018 and the “A Class” program— delivering data analytics, industry insights, and risk strategy solutions to business aviation clients—in 2020. WTW Aerospace provides insurance solutions for airports, ground handlers, refuelers, maintenance providers, and manufacturers.