COMINGS & GOINGS 31


Matt Yeldham AEGIS INSURERS >


Matthew Yeldham is the new head of casualty for AEGIS, reporting to David Croom-Johnson, active underwriter. Subject to regulatory approval, he will also become a director.


Mr Yeldham was most recently head of international insurance for Aspen and active underwriter of Aspen’s syndicate at Lloyd’s. He has also held senior positions with Wellington and Catlin.


Mr Yeldham’s recruitment signals AEGIS London’s commitment to develop its casualty account and position it for growth in the medium term. AEGIS


London’s managing director Stuart Davies said: “Our objective in recruiting Matthew is to strengthen our highly regarded casualty team further, enabling it to grow in a managed way now and be perfectly positioned for strong growth when market conditions are optimal.”


Mr Yeldham said: “AEGIS London is one of the success stories of recent years and an advertisement for what a sensible, long term strategy can achieve in this market. I’m delighted to be joining the team to lead its highly successful casualty account on to the next stage of its development.”


AEGIS London’s casualty portfolio includes specialist accounts of international, marine and energy casualty business and currently represents 24 per cent of the total premium of the business.


DAS DAS Legal Expenses Insurance has made two key appointments to its executive management team.


Phil Bellamy, formerly operations manager of 80e, the after the event (ATE) division of DAS, has been promoted to the new position of group underwriting manager. He has been with DAS for more than 20 years


Phil Bellamy


and will provide support on all areas of ATE and before the event (BTE) underwriting and will report to Mike Timmons, head of underwriting.


Andy Westall, who has also been with DAS for more than 20 years and has held a variety of sales positions, will take on the new role of group sales manager. Currently head of corporate partnerships at DAS, he will have responsibility for all BTE sales in the UK, reporting to Lyndon Willshire, head of sales and marketing.


Paul Asplin, CEO at DAS, said: “We need the structure and people in place to ensure we are able to meet current and future business demands. We identifi ed the need for these new executive management roles and are delighted to have been able to fi ll these positions from within our organisation.”


GROUPAMA Groupama has appointed Niraj Shah as chief actuary. He brings over 14 years experience in banking and fi nancial services including six years in actuarial and joined Groupama in 2006.


He moves into his new position having played a leading role in the company’s capital modelling exercise in preparation for Solvency II. Prior to this, Mr Shah was responsible for the actuarial pricing and reserving of a number of Groupama’s business lines. He takes up his new position in July and will report to managing director, Laurent Matras.


Mr Shah will head Groupama’s specialist actuarial, reinsurance and knowledge management team. He takes over from Steven Blake who will be leaving the company at the end of June to take up a senior management appointment at RSA.


Mr Shah said: “This is a challenging time for insurers with highly competitive market conditions putting signifi cant pressure on results. Getting the pricing and reserving right is a critical success factor and I am pleased to say that I have inherited


Andy Westall


a very strong team that is extremely capable of offering the strong support necessary to Groupama’s underwriting teams.


LIBERTY INTERNATIONAL Liberty International Underwriters Europe (LIU Europe), a division of Liberty Mutual Group, has appointed Andreas Ofner as senior underwriter – construction.


Based in Paris, Mr Ofner will develop a book of local construction business in France as well as work closely with other LIU offi ces on construction projects throughout continental Europe.


Reporting to Didier Robin, vice-president for energy and construction in continental Europe, Mr Ofner has spent the last eight years working for a major French reinsurer as a facultative construction underwriter.


MMA MMA has opened a new regional offi ce in Newcastle, appointing a local team to focus on brokers in the North East region.


The offi ce will be lead by Anthony Harris, business development manager and regional underwriter Ian McIntire. They have been with MMA for seven and two years respectively.


Derek Plummer, MMA’s commercial director commented: “Newcastle is our second regional offi ce to open in 2010 as part of our ongoing UK expansion. It follows the model we have introduced in other locations where brokers value our approach enabling them to develop local relationships with the local underwriting decision makers.


“Anthony and Ian have the local credentials to maximise SME business opportunities in the North East building on their existing broker relationships”. Initial broker reaction to our announcement has been very positive so we look forward to MMA becoming a real force in the Newcastle market.”


Newcastle is the fi rst of three new offi ces including Bristol and Chelmsford in addition to their regional offi ces in Manchester, Glasgow, Reading and Birmingham.


PARHELION Parhelion Underwriting, which specialises in the carbon climate and alternative energy markets, has announced the appointment of Stuart Burchell as renewable energy underwriter.


He will be responsible for developing the conventional renewable energy insurance business.


Coming from a technical sales background in the environmental services sector, Mr Burchell worked at Lloyd’s broker Windsor Partners for seven years where he was responsible for the production, set up and running of their renewable energy insurance facility. He then worked for Ascot Syndicate as an underwriter in their Spanish offi ce, specialising in renewable energy, before joining Parhelion.


“Parhelion is looking to lead the insurance industry to real change by developing new products and deploying traditional products to the climate challenge,” said CEO Julian Richardson. “As the business expands, we are seeking to demonstrate that there are not only threats but opportunities for the sector when it comes to climate change.”


Stuart Burchell July/August 2010 Insurance Brokers’ Monthly


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