Former head of Aspen Re London Stefan Long has launched Chord Re, a new reinsurance-focused managing general agency (MGA) that is set to begin writing business on 1 January 2018.

Chord Re has been set up as a joint venture between its management team, Neon and insurance focused venture investor Beat Capital, who share the same long-term goal of transitioning Chord Re into a fully integrated reinsurance carrier.

The MGA opened its doors on 6 November and will structure and lead programmes in specialist classes of reinsurance business, initially underwriting solely on behalf of Neon Syndicate 2468.

Long, who is CEO of the firm, will be joined by his former Aspen Re colleague Tom Meyer who will be 

CUO, alongside fellow Aspen Re alumni Chris Schmidt, Ed Wheatley and Marc Brendle and two assistant underwriters. The team will work closely with Darren Lednor, Neon’s chief underwriting officer and active underwriter, across its portfolio.

Willis Re CEO John Cavanagh, is set to join the MGA as non-executive chairman upon his retirement at the end of the year.

Chord Re has received the requisite approvals to act as a Lloyd’s Coverholder and will start quoting for business that incepts from 1 January 2018.

For the first year, Chord Re will concentrate on underwriting specialty-focused reinsurance lines including marine and marine composite, property, engineering, aviation & space, terror, nuclear and cyber.

Long remarked: “We intend to build a market-leading reinsurance business, differentiated by product expertise, with a balanced portfolio that combines quantitative analysis with experienced judgement to provide clients with innovative tailored solutions.

We believe that the knowledge, experience and relationships of the team at Chord Re, aligned to the support of Neon, creates a compelling proposition and we look forward to offering an attractive new source of capacity to the market.”

Meanwhile, chairman of Beat Capital, Tom Milligan added, that he was “delighted” to partner with Neon again in the creation of another business, following the launch of cyber focused MGA Tarian in 2016.