It’s back to work Tuesday, so let’s have the weekly job moves round up;
MCGILL & PARTNERS
McGill and Partners, the global boutique specialist (re)insurance broker, is appointing Dominic Mignon as Group CFO with effect from 1 July 2023. He will take over from Oliver Corbett, who as one of the Founders of McGill and Partners, has held the role for four years. Oliver has decided to step back from his current position but will remain an investor and advisor to the firm.
Oliver was one of the original founders of McGill and Partners and played an important role in helping to establish the business in 2019. Since then, he has continued to contribute significantly, as both a Board member and as a member of the Executive Committee, to the substantial build out of the firm across new specialisms and territories. This has included navigating the financial, regulatory, legal and licensing implications of the firm’s rapid international growth.
LODESTONE
Global cybersecurity firm Lodestone Security LLC (Lodestone), a wholly-owned subsidiary of leading specialist insurer Beazley, has named information security expert Alton Kizziah as its new Chief Executive Officer, effective May 1st 2023.
In his new role, Alton Kizziah will lead a newly-expanded senior leadership team in spearheading and extending the firm’s commitment to helping clients secure their business environment, detect threats, and respond to cyber incidents. In particular, Mr Kizziah will be focused on establishing the platform, processes, and capacity to enable Lodestone to drive deeper engagement with existing Beazley clients, as well as developing Lodestone into an industry-recognised first-choice for cyber incident preparedness and response.
Paul Bantick, Global Head of Cyber Risks at Beazley, said: “Lodestone is an increasingly important part of Beazley’s cyber ecosystem and we are pleased to have attracted someone with Alton’s experience to lead the company into its exciting next phase of development. Building and bringing together teams, driving industry innovation, and creating service businesses are highlights of Alton’s experience. This will be invaluable as we grow Lodestone further, advancing ambitions to deliver the effective cyber security support that businesses across the United States and beyond increasingly need.”
TOWERGATE HEALTH
In a move that will further strengthen its place in the market, Towergate Health & Protection is delighted to announce the appointment of Debra Clark to its newly created role of Head of Wellbeing.
This important new role will lead the development and delivery of impactful employee wellbeing propositions, helping the company continue to deliver forward-looking solutions that go above and beyond for its clients continuing the delivery of their strategy of becoming the market leading employee health, wellbeing, and employee benefits business.
Jason Britton, Commercial Director at Towergate Health & Protection says: “Debra is known for her passion for wellbeing. She is an inspirational leader , working hard to deliver for clients and colleagues, as well as representing health and protection throughout the industry. An award-winning practitioner, Debra is perfectly placed to drive this important development to meet our clients ever increasing and evolving needs in supporting employee wellbeing.”
ALTA SIGNA
European boutique Managing General Agent (MGA), Alta Signa Europe B.V. (“Alta Signa”), is pleased to announce a further key appointment to its growing business in Europe. Mauro Marongiu joins as Technical Head of Cyber Underwriting and will be responsible for managing cyber business in Italy, and the wider European large and middle market. His appointment matches Alta Signa’s close-to-source underwriting approach to meet the needs of clients and broker partners across the region. Mauro brings significant technical expertise, making him an important hire for the further development of Alta Signa’s cyber offering across Europe.
Prior to joining Alta Signa, Mauro was a Cyber Security Underwriter for Satec, with prior experience coming as an IT Security Specialist, Analyst and Consultant at companies such as UniCredit Services, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Capgemini.
BMS RE
BMS Re announces the promotion of Andrew Wheeler to president. He will take up the position effective immediately. Wheeler will report to Pete Chandler, CEO of BMS Re. A veteran of BMS, Wheeler assumes the role with more than 20 years of experience within the organisation. Wheeler’s expertise covers casualty, P&C, treaty, and refinance across both the London and US markets.
The appointment reinforces BMS’ ambition to further build on the impressive growth and scale of its reinsurance division. With many offices across the US, London, Bermuda, Latin America and Asia and more than 300 employees across the globe, BMS Re’s trajectory shows no sign of slowing down. Its ability to deliver first-rate analytics and efficient capital solutions while maintaining the highest standards of client service has enabled this exceptional growth. The additional investment BMS received at the beginning of the year has ensured that it has the financial firepower to expand at an accelerated pace and continue to attract exceptional talent. BMS Re specialises in bespoke solutions covering XOL, primary, catastrophe, programs, and capital advisory services.
WEBIO
The Technical Group is responsible for analysing and taking some significant decisions on behalf of the market to move it towards truly digital solutions and contracts. These include:
- Data standards and CDR,
- Process, roles and responsibilities,
- Computable contracts – adoption of the MRC v3,
- Computable contracts – future horizons
Sheila Cameron, Chair of the Data Council and CEO of the Lloyd’s Market Association, commented “I would like to thank Jonathan Prinn for his engagement and hard work on behalf of the Technical Group – it has had some real successes in the last 12 months. As we move towards considering a horizon that includes true computable contracts, I welcome Nick Williams-Walker as our new Technical Group chair and look forward to working with him on the next stage of the London market’s digital journey.”
Legal firm HF has appointed a new Chief Operating Officer (COO). Michael Rimmer, an experienced litigator and already Partner at HF, will be responsible for overseeing Operations across the entire firm, championing operational efficiency, best practice and outstanding service delivery through best use of technology, innovation, data and process re-engineering. He is also a member of the HF Executive Board.
Michael joined HF in 2008 and with a wealth of expertise in Counter Fraud Insurance Litigation he was made a Partner in 2017. In 2019 he became Legal Operations Director and added oversight of a number of the firm’s other operational teams. In his new role, Michael will also have responsibility for operational risk management, quality, overseeing HF’s property portfolio, new systems integration and the onboarding of new lines of work, new teams and lateral hires.
HCML
HCML has appointed Mark Riddleston as Group Chief Financial Officer. Having originally qualified with PwC, Mark has over 20 years of experience within high-profile global businesses, across media, entertainment, sport, and technology sectors. In his new role as CFO, Mark brings extensive commercial and strategic leadership experience and will be responsible for enabling HCML to build long term value through enhanced delivery of health, wellbeing, and rehabilitation. Mark will focus on maintaining and expanding key stakeholder relationships while developing the use of financial insight to help shape the overall strategy and direction of the business.
Nick Delaney, CEO, HCML, said: “HCML is growing rapidly and having Mark on board will further build on our reputation as leaders in the market while positioning us for further market development. Mark brings a critical understanding and experience in driving growth and operational excellence and we look forward to working with him to deliver our strategic priorities.”
ASCEND
Ascend, the insurancepayments platform, has announced that Jim Hackbarth, former President and CEO of Assurex Global, and Robert W. Smith, former President, Agency Operations at PCF Insurance Services, have been appointed as founding members of Ascend’s advisory board.
Jim Hackbarth joins with over 30 years of experience in insurance. Starting his career at IBM, Jim has held senior management positions at Price Waterhouse, Policy Management Systems, and Agency Management Systems (now Vertafore). He then founded Cornerstone Partners, a
consulting firm specializing in executive recruiting, early stage investing and incubating startups. From 2003-2021, he served as the President and CEO of Assurex Global, the world’s largest privately-held risk management and commercial insurance brokerage group.
Robert W. Smith brings over 25 years of experience as an accomplished operational and strategic executive leader in the financial products distribution industry. He has previously held regional and national practice group leadership positions with two of the ten largest risk advisory and insurance brokerage firms in the industry, Acrisure and Aon, which expanded their scope to become diversified financial institutions.
Smith served as President, Agency Operations at PCF Insurance Services, a multi-state insurance brokerage aggregator with over 140 agencies
throughout the United States. Recently, Robert founded Fideles Advisors, an advisory firm providing transformative financial and operational outcomes for independent insurance agencies, private equity and investors, insurers seeking distribution insights, and businesses seeking alignment with insurance agents.
LOCKTON
Lockton has appointed Simon Jesson as Business Development Manager to its Commercial Wholesale team based in Manchester. He begins his new role with immediate effect. Jesson brings over 20 years’ commercial broking experience to Lockton, joining from RIB Group Ltd, where he spent more than four years as Director and managed the process to sell the business to GRP in 2020, having grown fees and commission by 15% year-on-year. Prior to that, Jesson spent six years at Lockton between 2011 and 2017, and held positions at Henderson Insurance Brokers and Aon.
In this role, Simon will be responsible for developing new business as Lockton continues to grow the number of clients it serves in the UK, whilst also upholding best-in-class service for existing clients and building trading relationships with agents. Jesson’s arrival follows a strong year of growth for Lockton’s Commercial Wholesale team, which has doubled its headcount and seen year-on-year revenue growth exceeding 35% in the last three years.
NEXT INSURANCE
NEXT Insurance, a digital insurtech company transforming small business insurance, announced the promotion of Rachel Jrade-Rice to General Counsel, effective immediately. Rachel joined NEXT in 2020 as Insurance Regulatory Counsel and since then, has quickly risen through the ranks. Rachel brings over a decade of past legal and insurance experience to her role at NEXT, having previously served as the Assistant Commissioner at the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance.
As General Counsel, Rachel will leverage her extensive regulatory experience to improve coverage transparency and claims processing for NEXT’s small business customers, drive top-line growth and scale company operations. She will also continue to build NEXT’s legal team and drive innovative change for the company’s small business customers so they proceed to thrive.
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