Latest Job Moves and Senior Hires 20.09.22

Martin has extensive experience in defence personal injuries litigation, specifically public liability, employers’ liability and motor claims, from minor claims to catastrophic claims and including multi-party actions across all courts and forums. He also has significant experience in contentious Professional Indemnity matters.

Martin joins HF Ireland along with Partner Eva Bashford and Christian Carlyle, who joins as an Associate Solicitor in the Dublin office. He has strong litigation experience, having worked in Irish defence litigation since 2016 and most recently has acted primarily in personal injury litigation as well as advising in relation to coverage/policy issues and disputes.

FUSION SPECIALTY

Fusion Specialty, a leading global M&A insurance specialist that is transforming the insurance experience for small to midmarket businesses, today announces the appointment of Oliver Berridge who joins Fusion Specialty UK as director accompanied by Yinan Guo who joins as associate. Arriving shortly after the launch of the UK division, Berridge and Guo assume their roles with immediate effect and will report to Samuel Shirley, senior partner.

Oliver Berridge joins from Aviva, where as an M&A underwriter he built significant relationships with key broker partners. Prior to this he held the role of senior associate, M&A, at Ambridge Europe Limited, amassing expansive knowledge of the M&A insurance market and its bespoke requirements. Yinan Guo also joins from Aviva where she built an excellent reputation and particular expertise in SME, technology and real estate transactions.

Berridge and Guo join as Fusion Specialty UK cements its presence within the London market and looks towards continental Europe, a key area of focus for Berridge.

WILLIS TOWERS WATSON

WTW (NASDAQ: WTW), a leading global advisory, broking and solutions company, has announced the appointment of Alessandro Pesci as EMEA Reserving Practice Director to the company’s Insurance Consulting and Technology business.

After professional experiences outside the company, Alessandro returns to WTW, where he has worked since 2008, specialising in actuarial risk consulting and software. He will now re-join WTW’s Insurance Consulting and Technology business to support and strengthen client relationships in EMEA. 

Based in WTW’s Rome office, Alessandro will work closely with local client coverage teams and EMEA sales and practice leaders. He will also lead WTW’s technology and software propositions and solutions to help clients manage risk and capital, providing specific consultancy on IFRS17, reserving automation, inflation and M&A. 

GALLAGHER RE

Alexander Choniski has joined global reinsurance broker Gallagher Re in the newly created role of Head of Embedded Insurance, in North America, within its Alternative Distribution vertical.  Alexander will be responsible for creating an embedded insurance solution for clients in North America and will work in partnership across all parts of the global Gallagher organisation.

Alexander brings more than 18 years of diverse capital markets and insurance experience to Gallagher Re. He joins from his most recent role at Swiss Re, where he built and co-ran the Strategic Partnerships mandate — Swiss Re’s largest insurtech and embedded reinsurance portfolio.

Jim Bradshaw, CEO for North America at Gallagher Re, said: “It is a pleasure welcoming Alexander to the Gallagher Re team. He has one of the most unique experience sets within this new arena, which will allow Gallagher Re to offer its clients the most sophisticated embedded solution.”

SCIENCE POSITION

Gallagher Re, the global reinsurance broker, announces it has appointed Steve Bowen to the newly created position of Chief Science Officer within Global Analytics & Advisory.

Based in Chicago and with a global role, Steve will also work closely with the new Gallagher Research Centre – launched yesterday – Global Catastrophe Analytics, and the Climate and ESG teams and will join the business on 3 October 2022.

With a scientific background in meteorology and business analytics, Steve began his career in broadcast television before transitioning his skills into the insurance industry in 2007. He joins following 15 years at Aon, where he most recently served as Managing Director and the Head of Catastrophe Insight. A frequent collaborator with governmental agencies, academia and industry groups, Steve is highly respected and well-known across the risk and insurance spectrum as an expert in his field and has co-authored several peer-reviewed journals.

REASK

Insurance-focused ClimateTech Reask, a leading science and technology company focusing on natural hazard modelling, announces Louise Braybrooke as its new Chief Client Officer. Louise is a well-known specialist in Technical Sales, Account Management, and Customer Success in the catastrophe and geospatial analytics vertical. She has deep technical and industry knowledge of the role of analytics in P&C insurance, and strong connections across global markets.

Reask is on a mission to be the leading provider of next-generation Nat Cat modelling, worldwide. The company is disrupting the status quo by fundamentally rethinking how catastrophe models are created, offering real-time, post event, and longer-term probabilistic risk forecasting solutions for global weather-related catastrophes, using Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

This announcement, swiftly follows the appointment of well-known and highly respected (re)insurance and capital markets specialist Jamie Rodney as CEO, and Reask’s significant funding from Tencent, the global technology giant headquartered in China, to support this strategic growth and build on its broad portfolio of clients, including Swiss Re, Axa, and Descartes, to name a few.

MAGNOLIA GROVE 

Magnolia Grove Insurance Services (“Magnolia Grove”), the Beat Capital backed environmental specialty MGA, announces the appointment of Rumen Valkanov as assistant vice president. Shortly following the MGA’s launch in August of this year, Valkanov assumes his position with immediate effect and will report to Justin Crawford, president and CEO.

Valkanov brings more than 11 years of insurance experience to Magnolia Grove, eight of which were dedicated to the environmental insurance market. Prior to joining Magnolia Grove, Valkanov led an environmental underwriting team at Westchester, a Chubb Company, where he developed strong and enduring relationships with brokers in the West Coast region. He also holds a degree in Risk Management & Insurance from Georgia State University.

Crawford said: “This is yet another example of the high caliber talent Magnolia Grove is able to attract due to its ambition to become a market leading environmental program. Rumen’s appointment further enhances our underwriting capability and bolsters our presence in the West Coast. I am excited to welcome him to our growing team.”

ACCELERANT

Accelerant, the insurtech empowering underwriters with superior risk exchange, data analytics, and long-term capacity commitments, recently announced that Pete Horst has joined as Chief Technology Officer. Horst will lead Accelerant’s global platform strategy and development.

A software executive who excels at leveraging technology, Horst most recently served as Vice President of Engineering for business analytics platform Qlik, where he brought their platform to the cloud as an Enterprise SaaS offering. Before that, Horst held software development and engineering roles at IBM and Cognos.

“Accelerant at its core is a data and technology company. We are thrilled to welcome Pete to our team to lead our risk exchange initiatives to meet the needs of our Members and risk capital partners,” said Jeff Radke, CEO and co-founder of Accelerant. “His expertise and strategic partnership will expand our industry leadership, authority and vision as we explore new frontiers.”

SERVCA

Servca, the market-leading independent international Lloyd’s broker specialising in non-standard Medical, Financial and Professional lines insurance, announces three key appointments to its rapidly growing group.

Ian Zammit joins the Servca Board as an experienced Executive Director, brought in to head up the company’s newly opened European office in Malta. Having worked in risk management and insurance for over 30 years, Ian brings a wealth of experience and industry contacts from the Mediterranean to help Servca Europe grow its network among regional broking partners.

Chris Mayes joins the Board as a Non-Executive Director and strategic advisor. Chris is an experienced executive within the London market having successfully built up a number of insurance businesses, ranging from Lloyd’s Brokers to specialty MGAs, to successful and profitable exits.

Noel Vella joins Servca as Group Chief Financial Officer, responsible for driving the investment group and optimising Servca’s global operations for potential acquisitions of brokerages and teams that complement its casualty specialty focus internationally. Noel is a Chartered Accountant, having held senior positions at leading accountancy and audit firms, private equity and venture capital funds. Noel operates out of the Group’s global office in London and reports to CEO, Noah Jamal.

COMPRE

Compre, the Bermuda headquartered, international legacy group, today announces the appointment of claims veteran Bill Bouvier as claims director, North America, effective immediately. Bouvier will be based in Compre’s Connecticut office and report to David Presley, CEO, North America.

Bouvier will be responsible for leading the North American claims team in managing Compre’s complex portfolio, including technical oversight of third-party administrators and vendors and managing customer experience.

Bouvier brings more than 30 years of direct and reinsurance claims experience to Compre and joins from RiverStone where, for the past eight years, he was vice president and director of assumed reinsurance claims. Prior to this, he was vice president and director of reinsurance and direct claims at R&Q Re and he has also held senior roles at The Hartford and Nationwide Indemnity Company.

EVERTREE

Evertree Insurance (“Evertree”), an omni-channel personal lines insurance distribution platform, recently announced the hiring of Daniel Romero as Head of Mergers and Acquisitions.

Prior to joining Evertree, Mr. Romero was Vice President of Mergers & Acquisitions for HUB International Limited, a full-service global insurance broker and financial services firm, where he was responsible for the sourcing and execution of over 100 strategic transactions. This included negotiating and underwriting deal structures, analytics, modeling, due diligence, and the overall execution of transactions.

Evertree was founded in 2022 and announced in July 2022 that it had received a significant investment from Integrum