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Navigating a riskier world
The reinsurance market has experienced a solid 12 months, demonstrated by Fitch Ratings’ revision of its global reinsurance sector outlook to ‘neutral’ from ‘improving,’ even as it feels the reinsurance pricing cycle has most likely passed its peak.
The best underwriting conditions in two decades drove record profits in 2023, with a positive trajectory continuing into the start of 2024, testament to the performance of those featured in this year’s ReInsurance Business Hot List, as they have been crucial in guiding the sector through such a vital period.
“Across the board, the market has become especially disciplined with limits management and thoughtful attachment strategies. In excess casualty, reinsurers are focusing on claims handling not just in their own layers but throughout the tower, demanding high-quality engagement from every carrier on a panel. And as always, markets continue to emphasize the importance of underwriting discipline and proactive, transparent dialogue with brokers and clients,” comments Matt Moran, North America property and casualty underwriter for SiriusPoint.
While hundreds of candidates were considered, 59 key figures were selected for their leadership, innovation, and industry contributions.
Their foresight has been crucial in creating new products and ways of sharing risks to navigate the uncertain landscape.
“Knowing the ins and outs of their facultative reinsurance strategy is the main driver of what we do. You need to be nimble and quick thinking to understand what your client’s ultimate goal is, and being able to deliver bespoke solutions in a fast-paced and ever-changing environment to fulfil their expectations is our greatest challenge,” says Matt Nash, head of facultative, Asia Pacific at WTW.
The professionals named on the prestigious Hot List have grappled with today’s constantly changing risk environment, the pace of which has accelerated in all lines of business, according to Clarisse Kopff, who leads European and Latin American reinsurance at Munich Re.
The rise in risk is split across property, casualty, and specialty.
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Property saw an increase in both the frequency and severity of natural events, resulting in an approximately 10 percent increase in demand across the market, which was well met by reinsurers. Notable incidents included Hurricanes Otis and Milton, along with the Noto Peninsula earthquake. The market trajectory has seen renewals continue to be more competitively priced as insurers have high expectations for reinsurers meeting deadlines for quoting and clean authorizations in a consistent manner. Tracy Hatlestad, head of property reinsurance at Aon, says, “Responsiveness to individual cedent’s priorities will be a key indicator to insurers of the level of commitment that a reinsurer brings to the renewal process.”
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Casualty has been facing large swings in inflation and interest rates. Swiss Re’s latest sigma market briefing detailed how liability claims costs are rising faster than the rate of economic inflation in several major economies and showing no signs of abating. To further compound matters, 77 percent of jurors in the US believe in the use of punitive damages to “punish a corporation”. Citing a 2023 behavioral economics survey, Jerome Haegeli, group chief economist at Swiss Re, underscored income inequality as a key driver of this trend, highlighting how 44 percent of respondents felt firms should pay medical compensation even if they are not responsible for an accident. For example, 27 court cases awarded more than $100 million in compensation against commercial defendants in the past year.
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Specialty has had a series of destabilizing factors and geopolitical events, such as Russia’s continued invasion of Ukraine, the loss of a Japan Airlines Airbus 350, the collapse of the Baltimore bridge, and historic flooding in Dubai. “As the world continues to [face] more geopolitical instability and economic uncertainty, we’re also seeing an increased demand in the specialty reinsurance space,” says Jimmy Keime, head of engineering and nuclear at Swiss Re.
These challenges are underlined by head of reinsurance operations at Martello Re, Sherice Bashir, who adds, “The reinsurance space faces uncertainty in coverage, pricing, and regulation underscored by the extreme geopolitical and economic challenges. Climate change concerns are linked to unprecedented frequency and severity of natural catastrophes in property and casualty reinsurance. There are also notable complexities in capital management while generating yields and managing mortality risks with the expansion of life and annuity reinsurance.”
Cyber risk is another major development evidenced by the CrowdStrike/Windows global outage. Reinsurers have been working closer with their partners to help companies and societies advance their cyber resilience. In addition, the industry is trying to ensure a sustainable cyber insurance market to cover growing protection needs.
“Many carriers are looking at geographies, customer segments, distribution models and other specific niches within the market for that growth potential,” explains Chris Baddeley, VP of insurance solutions at Envelop Risk. “And that’s in a manner that we, as a team, don’t feel we’ve seen before. Whether that’s European growth, or Asia, or middle market, or alternative distribution – those are some of the themes we’re seeing emerging as focal points.”
What it takes to be an Influential Reinsurance Leader
The reinsurance industry is at a “critical juncture,” according to Aon’s Ultimate Guide to Reinsurance Renewal (September 2024) report, which describes how the sector is on a more financial solid footing. It also states that reinsurers must deepen their partnerships with insurers, use their capital to create a more sustainable market, and lean into a changing risk landscape.
Nash shares, “The businesses of our clients are complex and our value comes from operating in the gray space by supporting our clients to navigate through this journey. There will be the standard geography, social, and regulatory differences that professionals will face, but more specific to our industry, there will be the challenges of managing individualized client strategies across all regions.”
These are the initiatives driven by those on ReIB’s Hot List and the key areas in which they are excelling are:
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Understanding demand: The demand for reinsurance is strong due to exposure growth, modeling changes, and rating agency pressures, as well as the need to manage increasingly complex risks and volatility of large losses. Escalating cyber threats are also boosting the need for specialized reinsurance products to react to sophisticated cyberattacks.
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Powering growth: Aon believes the industry has untapped growth potential. Despite exposure growth and unmet customer need, the global insurance premium-to-GDP ratio has hovered around 1.8 percent since 2010. Penetration in the US has increased since 2017, but is still below its all-time high of 3.9 percent back in 1987, while EMEA has seen a steady decline since the early 2000s. The protection gap and the underpenetration of insurance demonstrate the huge opportunities for (re)insurers to grow in a sustainable and profitable way.
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Directing investment: With the right tools, talent and product development is key to staying relevant as an industry. Reinsurance needs to adopt a growth mindset, with a long-term strategic plan, and based on deeper collaboration. Caution over emerging risks is understandable, but a collective effort, without the fear of failure, will enable product and service innovation.
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Environmental, social, and governance (ESG): Appreciating the increased importance of ESG to create sustainable and socially responsible products, matching client preferences and regulatory standards.
Moran stresses how the top reinsurance professionals have embraced the digital world.
“Globalization and technological change are rapidly changing the risk landscape. The modern internet is barely 20 years old, and only in the last 10 years have smartphones become ubiquitous globally. In this context, a top-performing reinsurance professional needs to stay curious, learn quickly, and nimbly apply risk fundamentals to novel situations,” he shares. “Of course, this is all predicated by competence in finance and business basics, solid analytical skills, and perhaps most of all, effective communication and networking.”
Most influential reinsurance professionals
The industry leaders on the 2024 Hot List are located around the globe, fulfilling a series of impactful roles. Showcasing the breadth of expertise and leadership of the prestigious list of reinsurance professionals are three of this year’s winners.
CEO of Front Street Re
Location: United States
He significantly advanced the integration of reinsurtech, providing essential reinsurance capacity to insurance carriers. This has enabled these carriers to serve a larger customer base while leveraging cutting-edge technology to enhance the entire insurance value chain, including underwriting, distribution, and risk analysis. This integration not only bolsters the insurance industry’s efficiency but also directly benefits the public by improving access to insurance products and streamlining the customer experience.
One notable achievement under Fong’s leadership includes the provision of reinsurance capital and capacity to cedents. This support has been pivotal in helping cedents meet market demand and grow their businesses. Additionally, he has spearheaded the introduction of digital onboarding processes, significantly enhancing customer experience and satisfaction when purchasing and managing their policies.
As the CEO of Front Street Re, Fong has been instrumental in fostering global partnerships across North America and Asia. By bridging the relationships between insurance, reinsurance, and technology partners, he has addressed the market demand for innovative insurance solutions and technological advancements.
President of Captives Insure
Location: United States
Developed and launched the first open distribution, turnkey captive reinsurance solution that provides options for property, builders risk, WC, AL/APD, GL, GL/PL, XS/UMB, dealers open lot, PL, IM, and cargo coverages. This program allows for the inclusion of NATCAT, subsidized/affordable habitational, and New York Labor Law coverage. With the ability to write in all 50 states and in 160 other countries, Reznicek wrote a net-new gross written premium (GWP) of $63.4 million in the past 12 months.
With solutions returning anywhere between 50 percent and 85 percent of GWP as reinsurance premium to the captives, these placements brought approximately $41 million in combined returns. To date, these accounts’ incurred loss ratio rests at less than 10 percent, with many captives already receiving a surplus of approximately 90 percent of the retained reinsurance premium.
Reznicek’s work has been critical to the success of many high-performing businesses as they are finally able to participate in their risk in the same manner as Fortune 500/Global 1000 entities. This solution has been particularly useful as well-managed businesses in distressed trades (such as affordable, multifamily, agriculture, and others) are looking to solve the problem of ever-increasing insurance premiums.
Executive Manager, Pricing and Engineering at IAG
Location: Australia
Alongside his team, Conway has pioneered a sophisticated Tier 1 platform that produces the natural peril and reinsurance pricing across the IAG Group of businesses, Australasia’s largest insurer. This strategic solution went live for customer quotes on IAG’s biggest brands in both Australia and New Zealand over the last year, with current API call volumes exceeding 300,000 per day.
Through his leadership and deep expertise, Conway has linked specific reinsurance structures directly to live customers’ quotes, enabling detailed cost optimization with resulting savings for customers. As part of this platform, Conway and his team built best-in-class pricing models across earthquake, flood, bushfire, tropical cyclone, storm and storm surge, and developed the reinsurance analytics function for the Group.
He is also a committee member of the Catastrophe and Reinsurance Symposium (CARS). Thanks to its successful six-figure fund raised from sponsors, CARS hosted a free symposium bringing Australian MPs, industry practitioners, and scientific experts together. With the purpose of “building knowledge for a strong future,” the free attendance ensured that future talent could attend and the format stimulated constructive debate to align the deep knowledge pools of industry and academia with politics to find solutions to some of the great challenges today, including climate change.
What the future holds for the influential reinsurance leaders
Those on the Hot List are poised to maintain their momentum as the market moves into a more neutral state. WTW’s Nash highlights that part of the challenge will be dealing with tech.
“Reinsurance professionals will have to adapt and push through the technological shift in companies, better understand their clients, and provide quicker or more informative data and solutions. This is what clients want and need from us in the future,” he says.
Bringing all operations in-house will enable the industry to meet the rising need for reinsurance.
Nash adds, “The fundamental of facultative reinsurance being a lever to support portfolio management will always be the same. It’s how we deliver on this that will make a difference to the performance and outcome for clients.”
While Bashir emphasizes the constant demands on top reinsurance professionals.
“They remain apprised of industry trends and are conscious of the impacts their role and organization’s position in the market,” she explains, “They have necessary skills to translate the complexities into practical solutions to drive success but also work for organizations with strong leadership, which can identify and foster talent while setting clear goals, challenge skills, and create opportunities for growth.”
Australia
- Andrea Dry
Head of Client Underwriting, ANZ
Swiss Re - Andrew Davidson
Director, Client Markets, Australia and New Zealand
Swiss Re - Christopher Wallace
Chief Executive Officer
Australian Reinsurance Pool Corporation - Karl Marshall
Head of Advisory and Analytics, APAC
Howden Re - Mark Doepel
Partner
Sparke Helmore Lawyers - Philip Conway
Executive Manager, Pricing and Engineering
IAG - Scott Hawkins
Managing Director
Munich Re
Bermuda
- Fiona Walden
Chief Underwriting Officer, Casualty & Specialty
RenaissanceRe - William Wharton
Head of Argo Insurance
Argo Group
Canada
- Apundeep Lamba
Head of Reinsurance, Canada
Sompo International - Claire Myles
President
Reinsurance Management Associates - Claudette Cantin
SVP, Chief Actuary and Chief Risk Officer
Munich Re - Isabelle Bouchard
Vice President, Group Reinsurance
Reinsurance Group of America - Jason Arbuckle
SVP and Chief Agent, Canada
Partner Re - Jeffrey Walpole
Chief Executive Officer
SCOR Canada Reinsurance - Peter Askew
President and CEO, Canada
Guy Carpenter - Pierre Dionne
Director and Chief Agent, P&C
CCR Re
Hong Kong
- Carmony Wong
SVP, Southeast Asia Markets and Chief Executive Officer, Hong Kong
RGA Hong Kong - Victor Kuk
Chief Executive Officer
Swiss Re Asia
Indonesia
- Marguerita Silitonga
President Director
Aon Reinsurance Solutions in Indonesia
Ireland
- Jim Williamson
Executive Vice President, Group Chief Operating Officer
Everest Group
Singapore
- Ann Chua
Special Adviser Asia, Reinsurance
AXA XL Reinsurance - Emma Loynes
CEO, Lloyd’s Asia and Country Manager, Singapore
Lloyd’s - Eric Pooi
Managing Director
SCOR Asia Pacific - Francis Savari
Chief Executive Officer
UIB Asia - Kenrick Law
Regional CEO and Head of P&C Client Management
Allianz SE Reinsurance Branch Asia Pacific - Lauren Liang
Global Head of Growth and Innovation
Swiss Re Reinsurance Solutions - Marc Haushofer
SVP Asia Pacific
Renaissance Re
Switzerland
- Lauren Kent
President, International Reinsurance
AXIS Capital - Melodie Vanderpuye
Executive Director
Howden Re - Steve Arora
Chief Executive Officer
Alpine Re - Urs Baertschi
CEO, P&C Reinsurance, Member of Group Executive Committee
Swiss Re
United Kingdom
- Ditte Deschars
Chair, EMEA
Gallagher Re - Harriet James
Senior Vice President, Head of Sustainability Strategy
Renaissance Re - Ibrahim (Ibi) El Moghraby
Chief Operating Officer
QBE Re - James Vickers
Chairman International, Reinsurance
Gallagher Re - Terrence McDowell
Managing Director
Howden Re
United States
- Aisling Jumper
VP, Head of Global Underwriting Operations
TransRe - Andy Marcell
CEO, Risk Capital and CEO, Reinsurance Solutions
Aon Reinsurance Solutions - Brian Flasinski
CEO, Gallagher Re North America
Gallagher Re - Carlos Wong
Senior Director, Global Reinsurance Ratings
AM Best Company - Chris Dittman
Head of Florida Strategy
Aon Reinsurance Solutions - Claude Yoder
Partner/Global Head of Analytics
Lockton Re - Edison Fong, FSA, CFA, FCIA, MAAA, CERA
Chief Executive Officer
Front Street Re - Greta Hager
Chief Financial Officer
Fortitude Re - Kai Talarek
Chief Growth and Optimization Officer
Fortitude Re - Lee Covington
President
Reinsurance Association of America - Lee H. Vuu
Vice President, Reinsurance Claims
Argo Group - Mark Hansen
Global Chief Operating Officer
Gallagher Re - Nate Reznicek
President
Captives Insure - Nick Nudo
Senior Managing Director of Reinsurance
Aon - Phillipp Kusche
Global Head of ILS and Capital Solutions
Howden Tiger - Renaud Guidée
CEO, Reinsurance
AXA XL - Robert Cristiano
Vice President, Surety and Credit Worldwide
Everest Reinsurance Group - Ron Hamilton
SVP Americas and P&C Operations Leader
Swiss Re - Russell McGuire
Co-CEO
BMS Re - Shawn Lynch
Global Head of Financial Risks
TransRe - Simon Hedley
Chief Executive Officer
Acrisure Re - Suzanne Holohan
Executive Vice President and Chief Actuary
TransRe
