People Moves: QBE Re Appoints Guarnori and Ahluwalia to Senior Roles; Fortin Promoted to President of Intact; Hamilton Names Riihiluoma as Head of Specialty Re

This edition of International People Moves details appointments at QBE Re, Intact Financial Corp., and Hamilton Re.

A summary of these new hires follows here.

QBE Re Appoints Guarnori and Ahluwalia to Senior Roles

QBE Re has appointed Andrew Guarnori and Ashish (Ash) Ahluwalia to two newly created roles.

Guarnori joins QBE Re as head of Underwriting Oversight and Ahluwaliahas been promoted to global head of Performance & Portfolio Analytics.

Their appointments follow Mark Jackaman’s appointment as general manager, London, and completes the change in senior leadership structure, both announced earlier in the year.

Guarnori joins from Swiss Re, where for more than 20 years he held several casualty leadership roles, most recently as deputy head of Financial Lines within the Global P&C Reinsurance team. Starting from January 2024, Guarnori will provide independent and balanced underwriting oversight across the QBE Re business.

He brings more than 30 years of underwriting experience, having held a variety of senior underwriting, team leadership and portfolio management roles for re/insurance groups such as St Paul Re (Travelers), Europa Re (Berkshire Hathaway) and GE Insurance Solutions.

Ahluwalia joins from the QBE Actuarial team where he has held the role of head of Reserving since 2021. Ahluwaliabrings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the role with a global background in consultancy, reserving and performance management.

Guarnori appointment, from January 2024, is subject to regulatory approval. Ahluwalia will take up the role in August 2024, subject to regulatory approval.

QBE Re has offices in Bermuda, Brussels, Dubai, Dublin, London and New York.

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Fortin Promoted to President of Canada’s Intact Insurance

Intact Financial Corp. announced that Anne Fortin has been appointed president, Intact Insurance, effective Jan. 1, 2024.

In this role, Fortin will have responsibility for Quebec, West, Ontario, and Atlantic divisions of Intact Insurance. She will report to Louis Gagnon, CEO, IFC Canada.

Since 2021, Fortin has been executive vice president, Direct Distribution, and chief marketing and communications officer, overseeing all direct-to consumer operations of Intact Financial in Canada and global marketing and communications functions.

She joined Intact in 2011 as deputy senior vice president of Marketing, Direct Distribution, and held progressively senior positions in the Direct Distribution business. In 2018 Fortin was appointed senior vice president, Direct Distribution, and in 2019 she added chief marketing officer for national marketing operations to her responsibilities. Prior to joining Intact, Fortin was vice president and managing director of the Montreal office of FCB, one of the world’s largest networks of advertising and marketing communications agencies.

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Hamilton Names Riihiluoma as Head of Specialty Reinsurance

Hamilton Insurance Group Ltd. announced the appointment of Peter Riihiluoma as senior vice president, head of Specialty Reinsurance at Hamilton Re, the company’s Bermuda-based insurance and reinsurance underwriting platform, replacing Richard Sammons who will be leaving the company.

Riihiluoma’s appointment is effective Jan. 1, 2024 and he will report to Hamilton Re Chief Underwriting Officer Tim Duffin.

Riihiluoma has held underwriting, pricing and portfolio management responsibilities across a diverse portfolio of specialty reinsurance lines since joining Hamilton in 2019 as vice president, Specialty Reinsurance. Prior to Hamilton, he was with Chubb for nine years, most recently as vice president, Ceded Reinsurance, in Minneapolis, Minn. Riihiluoma is a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society.

“We are thrilled to announce Peter as our new SVP, head of Specialty Reinsurance. He has been an integral part of the Hamilton team and his exceptional skills and insightful market awareness make him the perfect fit to be promoted to this leadership role. We are confident Peter will continue to excel in his new capacity,” commented Hamilton Re Chief Executive Officer Megan Thomas.

“While we will miss Richard, we respect and support his personal decision to relocate back to the UK later in 2024, and we part on the best of terms. He has been an invaluable member of the Hamilton team, having built the Specialty Reinsurance practice when he joined nine years ago.”