Round-up of the weekly news and developments from the global (re)insurance market with stories from Marsh, Resolution Re, Globe Underwriting and more.
Marsh JLT Specialty adds senior hires to its Aviation Practice in New York & London
Global (re)insurance brokerage, Marsh has announced four senior appointments to Marsh JLT Specialty’s Aviation Practice in London and New York.
Based in London, Tony Ambrose and Martyn Holland have both been appointed as managing directors and will report into Andy Smith, chairman and CEO, UK Aviation Practice, Marsh JLT Specialty.
Ambrose, who will look to join the company next month, served as head of Aviation at Swiss Re since 2016 and previously held several senior aviation roles at the company. He will join the Aviation Practice in a senior leadership role and will work across all product lines.
Additionally, Holland joins the business from Aon where he was head of aerospace for their international business since 2013. In his new role, He will focus on developing the company’s aerospace services and solutions. He is expected to join in early 2020.
Meanwhile, based in New York, Julie Meyer is appointed as vice president and Stephen Murray as senior vice president. Both will report to Joe Braunstein, US General Aviation Leader, Marsh JLT Specialty. Meyer joined the business on 1 October and Murray is expected to join later this month.
Meyer joins with over 15 years underwriting experience and most recently served at Swiss Re as an underwriter General Aviation U.S. since 2015. In her new role, she will focus on all aspects of general aviation.
Murray joins from Global Aerospace where he was an underwriting manager with a focus on major general aviation and aerospace liability accounts for six years. He previously worked at Marsh from 2011 to 2013 and played a key role in the development of Marsh’s MACH and MAPP platforms. Murray will focus on US-based general aviation and aerospace business.
Simon Harker, global head of aviation, Marsh JLT Specialty, said: “Tony, Martyn, Julie, and Stephen bring a wealth of experience, insight, and expertise to our firm, which will benefit our aviation and aerospace clients globally in managing the increasingly complex risks they now face.”
Resolution Re appoints Steve Hales as CEO
Resolution Re, the Bermuda-domiciled reinsurance company within the Resolution Life Group, announced the appointment of Steve Hales as chief executive officer.
Prior to joining Resolution Life Group in 2017 as executive director of Europe, Steve was group head of Connected Insurance at Assicurazioni Generali where he led Data Science and ‘Internet of Things’ capabilities across the group.
Before that he moved to Assicurazioni Generali in 2013 to lead its newly created Global Life business line. Hales was also previously head of AXA’s Life and Savings business across its Southern Europe, Latin America and MENA markets.
Sir Clive Cowdery, executive chairman at Resolution Life, commented: “Steve is well placed to build our reinsurance business given his previous experience in global life markets and his contribution to the launch of Resolution Life Group.”
Hales, CEO of Resolution Re, commented: “I am excited to begin my role heading up Resolution Re. The life insurance industry is going through a deep transformation in a difficult macroeconomic environment. By providing a safe harbour for the sector’s existing policyholders, I believe that Resolution Re can genuinely help insurers through these challenging times. The next couple of years promise to be a lot of fun as we expand Resolution Re across different markets across the world.”
David Dymond joins Globe Underwriting as new head of marine and transport
UK based managing general agent, Globe Underwriting has named David Dymond as the new head of marine and transport following the retirement of Peter Rogers.
Dymond will take up the role with immediate effect and Rogers will remain with the company until January 2020 to ensure smooth transition.
He brings more than 3 decades of industry experience to the role. He previously served as head of underwriting for marine and transport at globe for the last three years. Prior to joining Globe Dymond held roles at Tokio Marine Kiln as regional underwriting manager.
Andrew Wallin, CCO BGC Insurance and CEO Globe Underwriting said: “We are very fortunate to have benefited from Peter’s expertise. He has been a highly valued member of the team, having been instrumental in establishing and leading Globe’s first-class marine and transport specialism. We wish Peter the very best in his retirement.
“Moreover, we have an experienced and capable successor in David. For the past three years he has been Head of Underwriting for Marine and Transport, working alongside Peter. Coupled with his expertise, skills and market reputation, this ensures that clients will experience continuity of excellent service.”
HDI Global Specialty SE adds Holness & Williams to expand contingency team
HDI Global Specialty Se, has announced the appointments of Martin Holness to lead its London contingency team and Sheena Williams who joins as senior underwriter.
Holness will report to Rafael Rebitzky, director of underwriting, specialty lines. Holness brings over 2 decades of experience and was most recently head of contingency for AmTrust.
Williams will report to Holness and she joins the business from Swiss Re Corporate Solutions. She brings experience from both underwriting and broking and spent time at Sirius as well as other Lloyd’s syndicates.
Richard Taylor, HDI Global Specialty SE UK managing director, said: “I’m delighted to be welcoming Martin and Sheena to HDI Global Specialty SE. Both come with excellent reputations within the market and are valuable additions to the team. We have been working hard to strengthen our Contingency business proposition and part of this work has been to add to the talent we have in the team.”
Liberty Mutual Re expands footprint in Continental Europe following acquisition completion
Liberty Mutual Re (LM RE) have announced several changes to the structure of its financial risk reinsurance team following the acquisition of Nationale Borg Reinsurance (NB Re) from AmTrust earlier in the year.
In Continental Europe, Financial Risks Reinsurance will operate out of Paris, Milan and Amsterdam.
The Paris office will focus primarily on Western Europe, Africa and the global credit insurers.
Milan will serve clients in Southern Europe, Middle East and Asia Pacific, and the new base in Amsterdam will focus on the Nordic and Central & Eastern European Regions.
Financial Risks Reinsurance business that was previously written from Zurich will be transferred to one of the other offices with no change in underwriting strategy or risk appetite.
Peter Smith, executive underwriting officer at LM Re said: “The acquisition will strengthen LM Re’s global surety and credit reinsurance expertise and enables us to expand our global footprint. Nationale Borg Re and Liberty Zurich Branch clients who are affected by these changes will be contacted to ensure a smooth and seamless transition. These changes are designed to further enhance our product and regional capabilities and better serve our global clients and brokers.”
Aston Lark appoints group chief technology & operating officer
UK insurance broker, Aston Lark has appointed Andrew Scola to its executive leadership team and to the newly created role of group chief technology and operating officer, effective immediately.
Scola has over 2 years’ experience as a management consultant leading complex change programmes as well as directing mergers, acquisitions and divestitures.
In 2009, he founded a specialist M&A consultancy, having gained seven years’ consultant experience within PwC and Deloitte.
Peter Blanc, CEO Aston Lark, said: “As part of gearing up for further expansion we’re delighted to welcome impressive talent into the group. Andrew worked with us for almost a year in 2017-2018 leading the merger of Aston Scott and Lark and I’m thrilled that he’s now joined the leadership team on a permanent basis for the next stage of our growth journey under Goldman Sachs.
Andrew’s background in acquisition integration makes him ideally placed to help us onboard our future acquisitions, and his experience of leading complex technology-led change programmes will enhance our ability to successfully implement our growth strategy”.
Scola added: “This is an exciting time to be joining Aston Lark, which is shaping the broking industry today with leading levels of service and trust. I’m looking forward to working with Peter and the whole Aston Lark team to build that reputation up further.
Having worked with Aston Lark on the merger, I know the potential of this company is only matched by its ambition. From an operational perspective, we will look beyond platform and data consolidation across the company to customer-centric technology that allows them to choose how and when they communicate with us. If we can deliver that vision efficiently and effectively, Aston Lark will be the broker of choice for customers, insurers, employees, affiliates and other brokers that want to sell their business.”
Everest Insurance Ireland, DAC announces UK Branch is now fully operational
Everest Insurance Ireland, DAC (EIID), based in Dublin has announced its UK branch is now fully operational and has the ability to write a variety of business lines.
Established in 2017, EIID enables insurer and reinsurer Everest to continue operating throughout the EU post-Brexit, providing its clients with continuity.
The Branch has full capabilities to write Contingency, Credit and Political Risk, Financial and Professional Lines, General Liability, Medical Malpractice, Property, Specie, Surety and US Excess Casualty.
Linda Ryan, CEO of EIID said “The UK branch further enhances the ability of our teams to deliver a broad range of innovative solutions and services with increased optionality for our distribution partners and clients alike.”
Vincent Vandendael, CEO of Everest Insurance® International commented: “This provides further operational flexibility as we continue to expand our international insurance capabilities, and plan for any changes that may occur in the market including any potential uncertainty created by Brexit.”
