Specialist insurer Beazley had expanded its mergers & acquisitions (M&A) team with the appointment of five new underwriters.

Beazley has said the expansion hopes to better service key markets and explore new opportunities.

Lorrain Lloyd-Thomas and Cameron McCoy join the London office. Lloyd-Thomas comes to Beazley from Marsh where she spent 14 years and most recently served as a managing director in Marsh’s UK private equity and M&A practice. Prior to this, she led the transactional risk team for Marsh in the UK.

McCoy will be responsible for the underwriting of UK and international M&A risks. Prior to joining Beazley, McCoy worked as an M&A underwriter at AIG.

In the US, Melanie Walker has joined the firm in Atlanta to increase capacity for US domestic risks. She previously served as an associate with Morris, Manning & Martin, LLP focusing on M&A.

Additionally, Tim Allen has moved from London to Denver as the team looks to build its offering across the US mid-market.

Kirsten Windle-Wehrle has joined the company to increase Beazley’s capacity for the DACH (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) region, for both primary and excess risks. She is based in Munich where she underwrites M&A transaction liability business on a global basis. She joins Beazley from Frankfurt-based commercial law firm Oppenhoff & Partner Rechtsanwälte and Steuerberater, where she was a specialist M&A lawyer.

Meanwhile, as a sign of further commitment to the Asia Pacific region, during the course of 2020 Beazley M&A underwriter Jordan Schwarz will move to Beazley’s Singapore hub from London to support increased demand there and in Australia and New Zealand.

Jordan will work with Jade Cummings in Singapore who joined Beazley last November from McAfee, LLC, where she served as a legal counsel.

Tim Allen, Beazley’s global head of M&A, said: “We have seen increased interest in protecting transactions through insurance and we are expanding the team to meet this rising demand. We are especially pleased some of the top professionals in our business have decided to join Beazley.”

Adding: “Over the course of four years, we have grown from a team of three underwriters to the current level of 14 M&A professionals. With this expansion, we will have greater expertise and capacity for our clients.