Round-up of the weekly news and developments from the global (re)insurance market with stories from Apollo Syndicate Management, Coverys, Catalina Holdings and more.
Apollo Syndicate hires Rob Johnston as head of marine and energy liability
Independent specialist (re)insurer, Apollo Syndicate Management has named Rob Johnston as head of marine energy liability at Apollo Syndicate 1969, effective April 2021.
In his new role, he will report to Simon Mason, head of marine and energy. Johnston joins the business from MS Amlin, where he managed numerous significant portfolios since 2014 and most recently served as a marine and energy liability senior underwriter. Before that, he worked as an underwriter at The Navigators Group for over six years, focusing on energy liability and offshore energy.
David Ibeson, group CEO at Apollo, said: “Our marine and energy liability team has been working closely with clients and brokers on innovative and flexible global insurance solutions. Rob’s experience in marine and energy liability will complement the existing team and contribute greatly to strengthening our offering in liability risks. We are very pleased to welcome Rob and we look forward to further growing our specialty lines teams in a number of core business areas, particularly given the improving market conditions.”
Coverys bolsters board with two appointments
Coverys Managing Agency, the Lloyd’s managing agent of Syndicates 1975, 1991 and 3330, has appointed Sarah Davies as a non-executive director and new chair of risk & capital committee, and David Hipkin has been appointed as non-executive chair of the board.
Davies brings over three decades of (re)insurance experience across the Lloyd’s & London Company Markets to the role. She started her underwriting career with the Royal and Munich Re before joining Wellington underwriting in 1993 where she held a variety of roles including property reinsurance underwriter, business support manager, and operations director.
In 2001, Davies was part of the executive team managing coordinated the highly complex transfer of the Wellington Underwriting reinsurance portfolio to Aspen and from 2002 to 2006, she served as Aspen’s Group chief operating officer.
In 2007, Davies joined AEGIS London as the operations and strategy director where she was tasked with improving operational performance and build the company’s infrastructure in anticipation of delivering its medium-term growth strategy.
Most recently she served as group chief operating officer, beginning in 2017. Davies is a non-executive director and member of the Risk & Audit Committee of Howden Insurance Broking Limited and a member of the board of the University of Bedfordshire.
Hipkin brings over four decades of experience in the London insurance market. He began his career in 1980 working as a market broker at C T Bowring. In 1986 he joined I C Agnew Underwriting Ltd as an underwriter at Lloyd’s Syndicate 672. Following the acquisition of Agnew Underwriting by Wellington Underwriting in 1990, he was appointed the liability underwriter for Syndicate 672 and in 1999, Hipkin joined Atrium Underwriting’s Syndicate 609 and was appointed an executive director of its Lloyd’s Managing Agency in 2001.
In 2005, he joined Arch Insurance Company (Europe) Ltd. and was appointed chief underwriting officer of the Company in 2008 and later following the successful start-up of Arch’s Lloyd’s Syndicate 2012, Hipkin was also appointed director of underwriting at Arch Underwriting at Lloyd’s Ltd. Since retiring at the end of 2016, he has assumed consultancy work with a variety of businesses in the London Market. He joined the Board at Coverys in January 2020 and previously served as a non-executive director and chair of the Risk & Capital Committee.
Robin McCoy, CEO of Coverys Managing Agency, said: “I am delighted to welcome Sarah to the Coverys board. She has an exceptional reputation as both an underwriter and a successful leader. We have a number of new initiatives in the pipeline for the Managing Agency and Sarah’s experience and counsel will be invaluable. David has been a consistent source of strategic advice for us since joining us in 2019 and the Board and I are very pleased that he has accepted this new role.
Sarah Davies, non-executive director, Coverys Managing Agency, said: “Robin and his team have clear, ambitious goals for Coverys over the next few years and I look forward to contributing to this effort. I was delighted to be asked to join their board.”
Catalina Holdings adds Anthony Mason & Penny Shaw to the UK board
Catalina Holdings has appointed Anthony Mason as chair and Penny Shaw as non-executive director of its UK Board.
The appointments follow the planned departure of long-term chair, Tim Cox and independent non-executive director, David O’Connor.
Mason is a qualified actuary and brings extensive experience across investments, audit and risk areas in the insurance industry.
He began at Lane Clark and Peacock’s general insurance consultancy in the late 1980s specialising in long-tail liabilities before becoming LCP’s Managing Partner. In 2007, he became CEO of the Medical Protection Society and later held various non-exec and consultancy roles, including with MedPro a Berkshire Hathaway company, bringing significant experience to the Catalina UK Board.
Shaw brings over 25 years of insurance industry experience and is also a qualified actuary and risk professional. She most recently served as group chief risk officer for The Hanover and its subsidiary Chaucer through their owner transition. She now holds several non-exec roles and brings further strong experience to the Catalina UK Board.
Steve Ryland, UK chief executive of Catalina said: “I would like to thank Tim and David for all their support in helping to achieve significant change in the UK business. I am really excited to be working with both Tony and Penny to help grow the Catalina UK companies.”
Chris Fagan, group chief executive of Catalina added: “Tim and David have made significant contributions to the UK boards during a time of growth and change for the Catalina UK companies and I wish them all the best in the future.”
AXA XL welcomes Ashok Krishnan as chief data and analytics officer
AXA XL appoints Ashok Krishnan as chief data and analytics officer, reporting to Matthieu Caillat, chief operating officer and will be based in London.
Krishnan joins from AXA XL from AXA Hong Kong where he served as chief data officer and customer experience director and was responsible for leading Analytics, AI & Data Science, Customer Experience, Insights, CRM Marketing and Data Management & Governance functions covering AXA’s Life, Health and P&C insurance businesses.
Prior to joining AXA in 2013, he held positions at Prudential plc. and Xchanging, focusing on strategy, distribution, operations & transformation and finance functions.
Caillat said: “I am pleased to welcome Ashok to AXA XL. His extensive expertise and background in analytics and data science, combined with his knowledge of the P&C insurance market, will further strengthen AXA XL’s innovation and technology-led approach as we accelerate our data strategy.”
Olav Spiegel joins AGCS as chief information officer
Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty (AGCS) has announced the appointment of Olav Spiegel as its chief information officer.
Spiegel reports directly to AGCS SE chief operating officer and board member Bettina Dietsche and succeeds Anton von Bebenburg who has moved into a senior advisor role several months ago, supporting the large-scale IT transformation program of AGCS.
In his new role, he leads the firm’s new IT organisation as it transforms itself into an agile IT product delivery organisation. This transformation is targeting a complete overhaul of AGCS’ IT operating model with core IT functions working in partnership with the business, understanding underwriting, claims, finance or sales requirements and converting them into data-driven and digital end-to-end solutions.
Spiegel also has oversight of the IT functions such as workplace strategy and enterprise architecture, driving the further amalgamation of AGCS’ IT into Allianz Group’s systems and platforms.
He joined the business from Allianz SE where he was responsible for developing the workplace strategy for Allianz Group employees, ensuring modern IT equipment, performance both in the office and remotely as well as high security standards.
Spiegel previously joined Allianz in 2016 as head of business operations and COO for Allianz Technology of America (ATA), after having held a variety of positions in consultancy previously.
Dietsche commented: ”Digitalization is an integral part for our NEW AGCS strategy and with our IT Transformation we support the transformation of the wider business into a next-generation insurer. I am delighted that, with Olav, we have found a new CIO who is familiar with AGCS and the wider IT ecosystem in the Allianz Group, in Europe and North America. He also brings a proven track record as digital transformation leader with both technology expertise and change management experience.”
Lloyd’s appoints Patrick Tiernan as chief of markets
Lloyd’s of London has announced the appointment of Patrick Tiernan to the newly created role of chief of markets, overseeing market performance and distribution.
Tiernan joins the business from Aviva where he currently serves as managing director, UK commercial lines & global corporate & specialty. Prior to that, he was the chief financial officer of Aviva Insurance Limited.
He currently serves as chair of the International Underwriting Association (IUA) and sits on the board of directors of the London Market Group. Tiernan is also on the board of ClimateWise and the Innovation Working Group of the Bank of England’s Climate Financial Risk Forum.
He brings 24 years of insurance industry experience to Lloyd’s, which includes serving as group chief operating officer at Starstone Insurance and chief executive officer of Zurich’s Centrally Managed Businesses.
John Neal, CEO of Lloyd’s said: “I’m thrilled that Patrick will be joining Lloyd’s in this newly created role. As a highly regarded industry executive with leadership experience across business and financial management, Patrick joins Lloyd’s at an exciting time. Our overarching priorities of performance, digitalisation, culture, together with a new ‘purpose’ pillar, are paramount and drive everything we do in the Corporation and across the market. Patrick will progress these priorities to deliver the impact and results we need right across the market from customer and distribution, through to underwriting business and oversight.”