People Moves: Allianz’ Ress to AXA XL; Tye Succeeds Card as Carbon’s CEO; Woodhams Promoted at iprism

This group of international People Moves provides details of appointments at insurer AXA XL; Carbon Underwriting, a managing general underwriter; and iprism, a managing general agent.

A summary of these new hires follows.

AXA XL Insurance announced it has appointed Marine Ress as chief underwriting officer, Casualty, APAC & Europe. Her appointment is effective as of Oct. 1, and she will be based in Paris.

In this role, Ress will oversee the management of AXA XL’s casualty portfolio and, working closely with local underwriting teams, will be responsible for the underwriting strategy for general liability, motor and environmental insurance in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.

Ress has more than 20 years’ experience in the insurance sector. She joined Aon in 2001 where she held a number broking and leadership roles, specializing in liability and financial lines insurance. She then joined Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty SE in 2011 where she was first responsible for the French liability team before becoming regional head, Liability Underwriting, for the Mediterranean region and Africa.

***

Carbon Underwriting Ltd., the specialist, independent managing general underwriter (MGU), announced it has promoted Nick Tye to CEO. He succeeds Stephen Card who has become chairman and will maintain a leadership and mentoring role for the growing team. Both promotions were effective on July 1.

The company said these management changes came after a period of successful growth across Carbon’s businesses – Carbon Underwriting; Carbon Syndicate-in-a-Box (SIAB) 4747, and data-driven underwriting tool Graphene. Carbon is “positioning itself for further success with a natural progression in its leadership team,” it added.

Carbon Syndicate 4747 began underwriting as a SIAB on July 1, 2020. The business is on track to achieve its third year estimated increase in stamp capacity to £62.5 million ($86.5 million), in line with the Lloyd’s SIAB business plan framework, and continues to build out its coverholder panel across a number of territories, including Europe, Australia and North America.

At the same time, Carbon Underwriting MGU has onboarded new S&P “A”-rated capacity providers as well as bolstering its team of underwriters, data analytic engineers, pricing analysts and claims managers. Carbon’s team has grown from four staff members to 16 employees during the first 12 months, with further new hires planned.

The last year has also seen Carbon’s coverholder partners, capacity partners and reinsurers adopt the Graphene platform, a data-driven underwriting tool that provides access to key delegated authority underwriting analysis and coverholder performance data.

“We have achieved an incredible amount over the last three years, both as a team and with Stephen’s support, and we are now in a position to really capitalize on the opportunities the current market presents,” commented Nick Tye, CEO of Carbon.

“Looking to the future, we will continue to build out our international coverholder panel at Syndicate 4747. We will onboard new capacity providers for Carbon Underwriting whilst expanding the reach of Graphene into the delegated authority market and transform the analytics insights available for quality underwriting,” Tye added.

***

iprism, the specialist commercial, property, tradesman and high net worth managing general agent (MGA), has promoted Aaron Woodhams to the newly created role of head of Underwriting.

Woodhams joined iprism in December 2019 as underwriting manager after working as a senior underwriter at Arch Insurance’s Lloyd’s Syndicate 2012. A 20-year veteran of the insurance market, Woodhams also has held various underwriting roles at Axiom Underwriting Agency and Allianz.

His new role at iprism will encompass overall responsibility for the management, development, and performance of delegated authority activity, including iprism’s underwriting strategy, oversight, quality control and development.

Woodhams will also take on delegated authority underwriting and insurer relationship responsibilities from iprism’s Underwriting Director Gary Johnson, whose role will now focus on more technical aspects such as policy wordings, documentation and claims.

“Since joining the business a little over a year and half ago, Aaron has played a significant role in our underwriting oversight and management. He has an excellent reputation in the London market and this promotion reflects his newly expanded role and responsibilities. I hope he will also play a key role in achieving our future growth ambitions,” commented iprism’s Managing Director Ian Lloyd.

iprism is an independently owned, wholesale MGA that uses in-house technology to deliver a range of insurance products to UK brokers. It operates a proprietary insurance brokerage platform, with support from a team of expert underwriters, to provide access to a range of specialist insurance products for commercial and private clients, all backed by a panel of UK-based rated insurers.

Topics AXA XL Allianz