Optio Group has appointed Deepak Soni as chief executive officer.

Soni joins the MGA from Axa, where he served as commercial director of Axa Insurance for the past nine years. Throughout his tenure at Axa, Soni held multiple senior positions, overseeing its SME, direct-to-consumer, delegated authority and specialty lines businesses.

Prior to joining Axa in 2015, he spent nine years at Hiscox in various senior roles, including head of Hiscox Direct Commercial, following an early career as a broker at Aon for three years.