THE BOARD of the insurance-broking multinational Willis Group Holdings hosts its first board meeting in Ireland today following its decision last year to move its place of incorporation from Bermuda.
Ten directors, eight of them from the US and two from Britain, will attend the meeting at the Four Seasons Hotel, Dublin, while another will participate by way of a conference call.
Chairman and chief executive Joseph Plumeri said the company is currently conducting interviews for the appointment of an Irish director.
He said uncertainty about the treaties between Bermuda and the US, in the wake of comments from US president Barack Obama in relation to tax havens, was part of the decision to move the company’s place of incorporation to this country.
“Ireland, to its credit, is conducive to attracting business here. It’s very tax efficient.”
He said conditions in Ireland, combined with the group’s substantial Irish operation, led to the decision to come here rather than other locations.
Other companies may have been prompted to look at Ireland in the wake of the Willis move, he believes.
Willis still has its executive headquarters in London. The parent company was located there up to 10 years ago, when it moved to Bermuda.
Any move that was an advantage to the company, its employees and its shareholders, was “a good thing, not a bad thing”, Mr Plumeri said.
The New York listed company has 300 offices in 80 countries, including Ireland, where it employs more than 300 people. It laid off about 400 of its 17,500 staff last year.
Mr Plumeri said that, at a time when competitors had laid off larger numbers, he was very proud of the outcome. He said he liked to run a moderate business at all times, rather than a “peaks and valleys” business.
