Beazley shakes up underwriting unit, sets ‘bold’ growth goals across key lines

Specialty insurer  Beazley will shake-up and merge underwriting divisions and assign new team leadership in a bid to both better meet growth targets and develop efficiencies in operations.

Amid a series of mostly mergers among underwriting teams, cyber takes on weight in a promotion to stand-alone underwriting division under the guidance of Paul Bantick (pictured far left), who steps up to a post on Beazley’s executive committee.

Cyber gets tagged as a "core product area" where Beazley has set sights on "ambitious plans for significant growth."

Elsewhere, existing underwriting teams are being consolidated under joint leadership for scale and new efficiencies.

"The divisions will be interconnected, able to operate at scale and will generate efficiencies and deliver innovation that will benefit Beazley’s clients and brokers," management said in its statement.

A broad specialty risks division under the leadership of Bethany Greenwood (pictured center left) will merge teams for executive risks, M&A and specialty lines. Beazley claims client demand is high across the sub-segments with similar challenges, notably social inflation, faced down by the same broker pool. That creates room to "maximise business synergies" and put up a "more integrated product offering."

A MAP division led by Tim Turner (pictured center right) will consolidate teams in global political, contingency, marine & aviation risks which Beazley claims are increasingly interconnected, presumably opening the door for similar synergies.

Property and treaty reinsurance will come together in a property risk division under the guidance of Richard Montminy (pictured far right).  New approaches in the division could eventually lead to increased appetite, management claimed.

Climate change is forcing changes in approach and Beazley "can leverage data tools, future modelling techniques and build the expertise needed to effectively underwrite the risk as it evolves, ultimately allowing Beazley to increase its appetite for this business."

Adrian Cox, CEO of Beazley said: “We have bold ambitions to grow our business across all key business lines and the changes we are announcing today position us to seize the opportunities both now and in the future. We operate in an uncertain and complex risk environment, and it is our responsibility to do the right thing, supporting our clients to navigate through, by offering relevant insurance solutions and capacity, matched by first-rate risk management and loss prevention strategies. The senior leaders of these new divisions are renowned experts in their fields, and I would like to thank them and the whole Beazley team, for their continued dedication to achieving our goals.”

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