John Haley

John Haley served as CEO of Towers Watson and then led the merger with Willis Group to create Willis Towers Watson in 2016. The merger combined Willis's insurance broking expertise with Towers Watson's human capital, benefits consulting, and actuarial services, creating a diversified professional services firm positioned across risk, benefits, and people management. WTW became one of the "Big Three" global insurance brokers alongside Marsh and Aon. The near-acquisition by Aon in 2020-2021 would have ended WTW's independent existence, but following the regulatory block, the company continued independently. Haley subsequently retired as CEO. The Willis-Towers Watson combination represented one of the more complex professional services mergers in recent history, requiring the integration of fundamentally different corporate cultures — Willis's traditional broking culture versus Towers Watson's consulting and actuarial heritage — into a coherent firm.