leading insurance market Lloyd's of London has named its first female boss in 325 years of history.
Inga Beale, 50, was appointed chief executive and will replace Richard Ward from January 2014, Lloyd's said in a statement.
The milestone announcement comes 40 years after the first woman entered the specialist insurance market's dealing floor as a broker.
Ms Beale said: "Lloyd's is already an international leader, but this unique market has an extraordinary opportunity to increase its footprint and to cement its position as the global hub for specialist insurance and reinsurance.
"I'm looking forward to working with the Lloyd's team and the wider market to deliver a strategy for profitable and sustainable growth alongside Lloyd's robust market oversight."
She has more than 30 years experience in the insurance industry, having previously held senior positions at Zurich Insurance and the insurance division of General Electric.
She follows in the footsteps of Liliana Archibald, who in 1973 became Lloyd's's first female broker and Name - individuals who back the market with their own capital.
After her first day, Ms Archibald quipped that she had passed the building on her way home and "the roof was still on".
Lloyd's, which traces its origins back to 1688, began life in a London coffee house where merchants insured ships.
Today it is home to a group of almost 90 competing syndicates which insure anything from a singer's voice to a footballer's legs.
Business Secretary Vince Cable has set a goal of 25% female representation on FTSE-100 boards by 2015.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article