Pioneer Underwriters has promoted Kate McCluskey to head of professional indemnity (PI) international and US excess.

Based in London, McCluskey will report to Graeme Rayner, group director of underwriting.

Kate has been with Pioneer since 2012, serving as professional indemnity underwriter. Prior to joining Pioneer, she worked as an underwriter at Antares, Mitsui and Liberty International, having begun her insurance career as an underwriting assistant at Brit in 2000.

Pioneer said that Brian Denton, senior class underwriter for PI international and PI US excess, will be stepping back to an underwriting role to support McCluskey in her promotion.

Commenting on her promotion, Rayner said: “Kate has proven herself to be a skilled technical underwriter and a natural leader and this promotion is a reflection of the contribution she has made not only to the professional indemnity team but to the whole company.”

Last month, Pioneer announced that it had received ‘in principle’ approval from Lloyd’s to set up a syndicate, which will be managed by Asta. Syndicate 1980 expects to begin underwriting business from 1 January 2018.