People Moves: Gallagher Taps AIG’s Loesti as Chief Commercial Officer of European Broking; QBE Re Promotes 3 Global Product Heads in New York, London

Gallagher Taps AIG’s Loesti as Chief Commercial Officer, European Broking

Nepomuk (Nepo) Loesti has joined Gallagher as chief commercial officer of its European broking operations.

The newly created role will support the expansion of Gallagher in Europe, outside of the UK, as the broker looks to build on its operations in Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Lichtenstein and Turkey.

Reporting to Alex Nagler, CEO of Europe (who joined in September last year), Loesti will play a key role in driving the growth strategy of Gallagher in the region overall, and work with existing teams to explore further product and service opportunities.

Loesti joins Gallagher from AIG, where he spent the last 17 years in a variety of roles in Zurich, London, New York, Frankfurt and Munich. Most recently, he held the position of head of Financial Lines for Europe, Middle East and Africa. Prior to this, he was head of Liabilities, Financial Lines and Client Engagement for Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Loesti started his career in underwriting at Liberty Mutual Insurance Europe in 2004.

“The firm already has some fantastic businesses operating in Europe, but there is plenty more room for growth and I will be working closely with Alex to deliver both expansion into new geographies, and also working with the wider in-country leaders to see what further products, services and solutions we can offer to maximize the outcome for Gallagher clients,” Loesti said.

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QBE Re Promotes 3 Global Product Heads in New York and London

QBE Re has appointed Salvatore (Sal) Sama as global product head for Casualty, Jane Farren as global head of Financial Professional Lines (FinPro) and Derek Durst as global head of Cyber.

Sama, based in New York, has more than 20 years of financial services experience and spent 10 years at Swiss Re prior to joining QBE.

Farren has worked at QBE Re in New York for close to three years with other industry experience including Aspen Insurance Group and Swiss Re.

Durst started his career at QBE Re in London in 2012 and worked at Aon for five years previously.

They are expected to take up the positions in January 2024.

“We are pleased to welcome Sal, Jane and Derek to these positions. These senior hires are reflective of our global ambition and desire to deploy capacity consistently around the world. In so doing, we can deliver sustainable growth and build long-term partnerships with our customers,” commented Chris Killourhy, managing director, QBE Re.

“The appointments evidence our commitment to underwriting discipline and offer our brokers and cedents a consistent proposition. Filling these senior roles internally is testament to the quality of underwriting talent we benefit from across the business,” he added.

The announcement follows other senior hires made at QBE Re in 2023 including Andrew Guarnori, Ashish (Ash) Ahluwalia and Mark Jackaman to head of Underwriting Oversight, global head of Performance & Portfolio Analytics, and general manager, London, respectively.

The new global product heads are responsible for underwriting quality, governance, and oversight for each product around the world. They will work closely with Jackaman, who was appointed general manager, London, in September 2023.

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

Topics New York Commercial Lines Europe London A.J. Gallagher AIG