Global Indemnity ousts CEO and COO after 16 to 18 months tenure; reveals $1.5m Ian losses

Specialty property and casualty insurer  Global Indemnity Group has parted ways with its chief executive officer, who joined last year from Chubb, and chief operating officer, and appointed a new leader who it believes will best serve the company at this time. Separately, the insurer has revealed that it has incurred $1.5 million pre-tax catastrophe losses from Hurricane Ian.

Current CEO David Charlton, and COO Reiner Mauer are no longer officers or directors of Global Indemnity Group and its subsidiaries, the company has declared.

GBLI’s board of directors has appointed Joseph Brown as its new CEO.

Brown has served as a GBLI director since december 2015 and will remain on GBLI’s board of directors. Brown has close to 50 years of insurance industry experience, including prior tenures as a director, chairman, and chief executive officer of MBIA, chairman of the board of Safeco, chairman of the board of Talegen Holdings, chairman of Noblr, and president and chief executive officer of Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company.

GBLI also announced that Jason Hurwitz has rejoined its board of directors. He had previously served on GBLI’s board from September 2017 to January 2022. Hurwitz is a partner with Osier Capital, an investment firm focused on insurance and other long-term investments.

GBLI had hired Charlton from Chubb in April 2021 following a search process that started in January that year.

Fox thanked both Charlton and Mauer for their “significant contributions to GBLI during their 18-month and 16-month respective tenures with GBLI.”

“However, GBLI’s board of directors believes that the company would be best served at this time by Jay Brown as its Chief Executive Officer, given Jay’s vast experience as a chief executive and as a board chairman of several prominent and highly esteemed property & casualty insurance companies, where Jay orchestrated enterprise transformative results. Jay’s decades of insurance company senior leadership expertise will be of tremendous value to GBLI as it transitions to an information technology and data driven casualty lines focused provider,” Fox added.

Brown commented: “It has been a terrific experience as a director working with the GBLI board and management team over the past 5 years developing the long-term strategy for our company. I look forward to shifting to the senior executive role at the company leading the effort to make that vision a reality.”

That company said that its estimate of Hurricane Ian losses, to be reflected in the third quarter of 2022, reflect its “multi-year efforts to reduce its catastrophe exposures”.

GBLI also announced that it will commence a stock repurchase programme beginning in the fourth quarter of 2022. Repurchases of up to $32 million of GBLI’s currently outstanding A Common Shares have been authorised by GBLI’s board of directors. The authorisation to repurchase will expire on December 31, 2027. The timing and actual number of shares repurchased, if any, will depend on a variety of factors, including price, general business and market conditions, and alternative investment opportunities.

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