People Moves: Hiscox Hires Starr’s Buchanan as Casualty Dir.; Sharpe, Griffiths to Inver Re’s Exec Team; Plumptre, Fox Join Blenheim Underwriting’s Political Risk Team

This edition of International People Moves details appointments at insurer Hiscox, the reinsurance broker Inver Re, and the Lloyd’s managing agency, Blenheim Underwriting.

A summary of these new hires follows here.

Hiscox Appoints Starr’s Buchanan as Casualty Director

Hiscox, the specialist global insurer, has appointed Colin Buchanan as the new divisional director of Casualty for its London Market business. He will join the company on Nov. 22.

Reporting to Paul Lawrence, chief underwriting officer at Hiscox London Market, Buchanan joins from Starr where he was director and head of International Casualty. Prior to this, he worked in a number of senior casualty positions across the globe, including roles at American International Group and AHAC Australasia. With over 35 years’ experience, Buchanan has an outstanding track record of leading underwriting teams, delivering strong results and maximising opportunities within casualty lines.

As part of the broader Hiscox London Market leadership team, Buchanan will be based in London, managing a team of 14 experienced underwriters writing cyber, D&O and general liability to deliver the company’s strategy of growth in these key lines.

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Reinsurance Broker Inver Re Names Sharpe, Griffiths to Leadership Team

Inver Re announced two recent appointments to its leadership team: Chris Sharpe has joined the new reinsurance platform as Strategy, Innovation and Business Development director, and Nick Griffiths was named a director.

Both will report to Ardonagh’s CEO of Reinsurance and Capital, Steve Hearn.

Sharpe brings with him a wealth of reinsurance experience, having set up Hiscox’s business in Bermuda, which became the company’s most profitable team. He went on to create Hiscox Re – bringing together Hiscox’s reinsurance operations across London and Bermuda.

Sharpe later founded Kinsu, the first app to sell insurance in the UK, creating a quote-and-buy policy backed by a Lloyd’s syndicate in a few clicks. He has also been a non-executive director at former client Geovera Reinsurance Ltd., and runs his own commercial property business in the South West.

In a separate announcement, Griffiths has been appointed director – Reinsurance. He will focus on alternative sources of reinsurance capital and insurance-linked securities (ILS).

Griffiths joins from Howden where he was an executive director in the firm’s reinsurance broking division, having joined the company in 2018. Prior to that, he worked at RFIB Group Ltd. for a decade, latterly as head of Broking of its reinsurance division.

Part of the Ardonagh Group, Inver Reinsurance Brokers Ltd. was launched this year to take a consultative, bespoke approach to the core discipline of treaty reinsurance and craft risk strategies to suit individual requirements by using a combination of traditional actuarial methods and sophisticated data science to provide new levels of insight and analysis.

Ardonagh recently completed its acquisition of the insurance and reinsurance broking operations of BGC Partners, adding significant growth to its specialty broking operations and building on its ambitions to deliver capital solutions for insurance and reinsurance clients.

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Blenheim Underwriting Names Plumptre and Fox to Political Risk Team

Blenheim Underwriting, the London-based Lloyd’s managing agency, announce the recruitment of Tamsin Plumptre and Ed Fox to its political risk underwriting team. They will both play a pivotal role in Blenheim’s expansion into the political risk sector.

Plumptre, who joined on Nov. 8, brings with her more than 17 years’ experience. Most recently, she was head of structured credit, political and security risks at the Canadian independent broker EQUA Specialty. Prior to her time in Canada, Plumptre spent more than 10 years in the London market at both JLT group and Willis Towers Watson. She has a wealth of expertise in working with financial institutions and has extensive knowledge in the security, political and trade risk field.

Fox, who joined on Nov. 15, previously was a political risk and violence underwriter at NOA Syndicate 3902. Before this, he held the same position at AmTrust at Lloyd’s, where he worked collaboratively with a series specialist brokers. Fox will take a leading role in shaping Blenheim’s underwriting portfolio and will have a particular focus on their trader clients.

Blenheim, which was launched this year, is responsible for the management of Syndicate 5886 at Lloyd’s

Topics Underwriting Casualty