People Moves: Coomer Joins Swiss Re’s iptiQ as CTOO; COGITANDA Hires Gerety from Liberty Specialty as Chief Ins. Officer; Ki Names Hodgson 1st CTO

This edition of International People Moves details technology appointments at Swiss Re’s iptiQ and the digital Lloyd’s syndicate Ki as well as an appointment at German cyber risk management and insurance solutions provider COGITANDA.

A summary of these new hires follows here.

Coomer Joins Swiss Re’s iptiQ as Chief Technology and Operations Officer

Darren Coomer has been appointed chief technology and operations officer (CTOO) for iptiQ, Swiss Re’s digital insurance company.

Coomer joins iptiQ from the S&A Group, a UK-based technology and business change transformation consultancy, which he founded in 2010. Over the last 10 years he has helped numerous start-ups, insurtechs and large corporates to deliver innovative financial services products, navigate major technological transformations and shift towards agile, customer focused strategies. Coomer has held several board-level positions, including three years as chief information officer at The Co-Op and and two years at life insurer LV=.

Coomer will be based in London.

Swiss Re’s iptiQ is a digital platform and white-label provider of property/casualty and life/health insurance. Its B2B2C business model, combined with the iptiQ platform, enable companies to offer new digital insurance solutions for their customers.

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COGITANDA Appoints Gerety from Liberty Specialty Markets as Chief Insurance Officer

COGITANDA Dataprotect AG, the Cologne, Germany-based provider of cyber risk management and insurance solutions, has appointed Ronan Gerety as chief insurance officer (CIO), effective Sept. 1, 2021.

Based in Cologne, Gerety will be primarily responsible for international growth and further development of the cyber risk specialist’s offerings.

Gerety, who started his career at the Lloyd’s market in London and with the Gerling Group, joins from industrial insurer Liberty Specialty Markets, where he held the role of general manager, with responsibility for Germany since 2018.

He was also responsible for building the European business of the specialty insurer Catlin, where, as one of its founding directors, he supported the opening of 13 offices across nine European countries from 2004 until 2015 and was instrumental in expanding relationships with European brokers and driving the development of Catlin’s insurance products.

COGITANDA was founded in 2016 in Kreuzberg (Ahr) and now has offices across six locations in Germany, Austria and France, namely in Cologne, Munich, Hamburg, Vienna and Paris. In addition to insuring cyber risk, COGITANDA also provides its customers with all types of risk prevention services in addition to managing post-loss recovery.

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Ki Appoints Hodgson as 1st Chief Technology Officer

Ki, the first fully digital and algorithmically driven Lloyd’s syndicate, has appointed Richard Hodgson to the newly created role of chief technology officer. Hodgson will sit on the Ki executive committee.

Hodgson will be responsible for leading Ki’s technology strategy and execution, including its engineering function, helping the business in its mission to define the future of digital trading in the market.

Hodgson brings 18 years’ experience in technology, with significant expertise in building UX (user experience), working with complex data sets and developing algorithmic business models. Previously, he was CTO of Bricklane, an online residential property investment platform where he was a member of the founding team. He also has held technical architect and senior engineering roles at Conde Nast and the BBC.

Hodgson began his new role on Aug. 23, reporting to James Birch, development director.

Ki is an algorithmically driven follow-only syndicate, managed by Brit Syndicates Limited. It writes follow-only business written by Brit or other “nominated” syndicates. Ki was incubated by BritX, Brit’s innovation team, working in collaboration with Google Cloud.