Former Dale underwriting director to lead expansion of Lloyd’s syndicate Verto

Asta-managed Lloyd’s syndicate Verto 2689 has hired an active underwriter to lead its expansion into a multi-partner consortia business.

The syndicate has taken key steps to fully execute its follow-syndicate strategy with the addition of new consortia business for the 2022 year of account.

Chris Sharp will oversee underwriting and consortia partner management for the business. He will be joined by Leah Rose (pictured) as general counsel who was formerly at Parhelion Capital, having spent more than eight years as head of legal at Brit Insurance.

Sharp was formerly chief underwriting officer at Parhelion Capital, and director of underwriting and head of property reinsurance at Dale Underwriting Partners for the seven years before that.

Verto Syndicate 2689 provides capacity to three Lloyd’s consortia arrangements for 2022, including its existing relationship with Chord Re, a four class consortia with Mosaic and an Arch consortia, providing a diversified range of underwriting across quality Lloyd’s platforms.

The syndicate expects to build its premium over the next three years in order to develop efficient, flexible, and enduring partnerships enabling capital to access a diverse range of insurance risks.

Verto said its underwriting and business plan will remain unchanged for 2022.

Stephen Harris, CEO of Hampden Group, said: “Chris’s experience and knowledge brings a new level of expert underwriting analysis to the active underwriter role at Verto. We are very pleased to be able to deploy his diverse skillset to further improve Verto’s ability to select and support other leading lines in executing Verto’s follow strategy.”

Sharp added: “I am excited by this opportunity to build a business with Hampden and utilise my skills to provide capital with a diverse and profitable follow syndicate operation.”

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