Howden Specialty poaches divisional director from Willis

Howden Specialty has strengthened its Sustainable Energy practice with a new divisional director.

Severin Hegelbach joins from Willis, where he was divisional director in the Financial Solutions team and focused on providing insurance and risk management advice to lenders on structured project finance deals across the world. Prior to this, he worked as an energy underwriter for Swiss Re, focusing on power and utilities, oil and gas, and mining risks. He has also held positions at Credit Suisse, Siemens and the Advisory House.

In his newly created role, Hegelbach will lead a renewable energy advisory service, focused on providing in-depth risk advice for clients, sponsors, lenders, investors, retail and other partners. The objective of this new service is to offer an early ‘de-risking’ approach, which in turn delivers long-term cost efficiencies for clients. This appointment represents further investment in specialised expertise as Howden commits to bolstering its sustainable energy initiative.

Based in São Paulo, Brazil, Hegelbach will report to Head of Sustainable Energy, Deborah Duss and will work closely with the sustainable energy team across Howden Specialty’s hubs in London, Miami, Singapore, Dubai, Bermuda and Luxembourg, whilst being embedded in the Howden Brazil team and collaborating with these colleagues on local initiatives.

Commenting on his appointment, Duss said: “Being able to offer our sustainable energy clients a dedicated advisory service alongside our specialist broking expertise will ensure they benefit from the best possible results in the long term, and will further expand our growing portfolio of renewables clients. Severin’s energy underwriting background, financial advisory experience, deep technical knowledge and passion for renewable energy makes him uniquely qualified to lead this new service.”

Hegelbach added: “I’m excited to be joining Howden’s sustainable energy initiative at such a pivotal moment for the company and the sector, as the team continues to expand, and clients place an increasing emphasis on sustainability risks. Howden continues to prove itself to be an innovator in the field of sustainability, demonstrating an agility to respond both to client needs and emerging risks. No renewable project is the same, so I look forward to working closely with Howden’s existing and future clients to enable them to manage their risks in a proactive way at the earliest possible stage, delivering bespoke de-risking approaches tailored to client’s individual needs.”

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