Beazley expands global M&A underwriting with Marsh, AIG hires

Specialist insurer Beazley has expanded its mergers & acquisitions (M&A) team, in a move it hopes will help better service key markets and explore new opportunities.

The expansion includes the appointment of five new underwriters across the US, UK, Continental Europe and Asia Pacific.

In London, Lorraine Lloyd-Thomas has joined Beazley from Marsh where she spent 14 years, most recently as a managing director in Marsh’s UK private equity and M&A practice. Previously, she headed up the transactional risk team for Marsh in the UK.

Cameron McCoy has joined the London office from AIG, where he most recently worked as an M&A underwriter. He will be responsible for the underwriting of UK and international M&A risks at Beazley.

In the US, Melanie Walker has joined Beazley in Atlanta to increase capacity for US domestic risks. Walker was most recently an associate with Morris, Manning & Martin, LLP where she focused on M&A. Prior to that, she was at an international law firm, headquartered in New York City, within the firm’s capital markets practice, where she worked on public and private capital markets transactions, including tender and exchange offers, initial public offerings and debt issuances.

In addition, Tim Allen has moved from London to Denver to build its offering across the US mid-market.

To increase Beazley’s capacity for the DACH (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) region, for both primary and excess risks, Kirsten Windle-Wehrle has joined the company. She is based in Munich where she underwrites M&A transaction liability business on a global basis. She joins Beazley from Frankfurt-based commercial law firm Oppenhoff & Partner Rechtsanwälte and Steuerberater, where she was a specialist M&A lawyer.

Finally, M&A underwriter Jordan Schwarz will move to Beazley’s Singapore hub from London to support increased demand in the Asia Pacific region, including Australia and New Zealand. He will work with Jade Cummings in Singapore who joined Beazley last November from McAfee, where she served as a legal counsel.

Tim Allen, Beazley’s global head of M&A, said that the expansion follows several years of continuous growth in underwriting transaction risks. “We have seen increased interest in protecting transactions through insurance and we are expanding the team to meet this rising demand. We are especially pleased some of the top professionals in our business have decided to join Beazley,” he said.

Allen added: “Over the course of four years, we have grown from a team of three underwriters to the current level of 14 M&A professionals. With this expansion, we will have greater expertise and capacity for our clients.”