People Moves: Sompo Int’l Taps Zurich’s Brand as President, Continental Europe; HDI Global Specialty Promotes Candi in Italy Branch; DUAL APAC Promotes 2 Execs

This edition of International People Moves details appointments at Sompo International, HDI Global Specialty, and DUAL Asia Pacific.

A summary of these new hires follows here.

Sompo International Taps Zurich’s Brand as President, Continental Europe

Sompo International, the Bermuda-based re/insurer, announced the appointment of Ralph Brand as president, Continental Europe.

In this role, Brand will oversee Sompo International’s strategy in Continental Europe and enhance its offering to clients and distribution partners across the region.

Brand comes to Sompo International with more than 35 years of international insurance experience, most recently as global head of Casualty, Financial Lines & Cyber, for Zurich Insurance’s Commercial Insurance business. He has held various leadership roles at Zurich and AIG in Europe and spent more than 15 years with Allianz, living in and overseeing portfolios in Germany, France, Sweden, the U.S., South Africa and Switzerland. Brand holds a master’s degree in economics, marketing and foreign trade from the University of Rendsburg, Germany.

“I’m delighted to welcome Ralph Brand to the Sompo International Europe team,” said Julian James, Sompo International’s CEO Global Markets, Commercial P&C.

“Sompo has operated in Europe for over 50 years through our Japanese interest accounts. Four years ago, we started our pan-European professional lines offering and have strong ambitions to strengthen our commitment and expand our capabilities to brokers and clients across the Continent. Ralph is ideally placed to drive our ambitions forward. His wealth of experience and commercial mindset will be invaluable as we expand and grow our business, leading with our core values and putting our clients and trading partners at the center of everything we do,” commented James.

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HDI Global Specialty Promotes Candi to Lead Italy Branch

HDI Global Specialty has appointed Olga Candi to the role of general manager, becoming head of its branch office in Milan.

Candi has over nine years’ experience in the insurance industry and was previously underwriter co-ordinator for the branch. She replaces Paolo Volpi who has moved on to new challenges outside of the group.

The appointment will also see Alberto Bellomi, managing director of HDI Global SE in Italy take on the duties of legal representative for the HDI Global Specialty branch in support of its commercial transactions and operations

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DUAL Asia Pacific Promotes 2 Executives

DUAL Asia Pacific, the specialist underwriting arm of Howden Group Holdings, announced two key promotions to its leadership team: Michael Ussher has been appointed deputy CEO, DUAL Asia Pacific, and Jane Cullen will take on the role of chief information officer for the region.

Both appointments are effective on Oct. 1.

Cullen and Ussher have been with DUAL since 2005 and 2006, respectively. In his new role, Ussher will be responsible for delivering the leadership team’s business plans, while Damien Coates, CEO, DUAL Asia Pacific focuses on growth through acquisitions and other new initiatives.

“We’re absolutely thrilled to announce these promotions. Both Michael and Jane joined DUAL shortly after we established our Australia business in 2004,” commented Coates.

“In that time, they have both made invaluable contributions to our growth and today we are an A$350 million organisation with ambitions to grow significantly over the next five years in both Australia and New Zealand,” he added. “Leo Abruzzo, and I, as founders of DUAL Australia, could not be more thrilled to promote Michael and Jane to these key positions on our leadership team.”

“As CIO, Jane has responsibility for the management of all operating systems and technology. Jane has been instrumental in our recent WebRater platform upgrade, which has delivered 12,000 new business policies and 40,000 renewal policies since its launch, according to Abruzzo, managing director, DUAL Asia Pacific.

“In his role as commercial manager, Michael has already helped to drive exponential growth of our business, and as deputy CEO he will be responsible for successful execution of our growth strategy,” Abruzzo continued.

WebRater is DUAL Asia Pacific’s online quote and bind platform where brokers only need to complete an insured’s general information once to receive quotes for up to 13 products across financial lines, general liability and accident & health.

Topics Europe