Top executive departure triggers leadership reshuffle at Allianz AGCS

Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty (AGCS),  Allianz group's specialist corporate insurer, has revealed that its chief underwriting officer (CUO) corporate is leaving the business, and is being replaced by the current global head of financial lines. 2021 has seen the insurer make a raft of leadership changes as part of its  portfolio turnaround and wider business transformation strategy.

Effective January 1, 2022, Shanil Williams (pictured) will move to the AGCS SE board of management from his current position as AGCS global head of financial lines. Williams will replace Tony Buckle as new CUO corporate, with responsibility for AGCS’s underwriting business in the corporate lines segment including liability, property, financial lines, and alternative risk transfer, as well as the Allianz Group Cyber Center of Competence.

Buckle will be leaving Allianz for “personal reasons,” the insurer confirmed.

In addition to his CUO responsibilities, Williams will lead Allianz Risk Consulting and key internal underwriting functions such as accumulation & catastrophe risk management, and portfolio performance management.

Meanwhile, AGCS CUO of specialty Renate Strasser will assume the additional responsibilities of the board oversight of the energy & construction line of business as well as of the global pricing team.

Williams joined AGCS in 2016 as country manager for New Zealand. In 2018, he relocated to Munich to take on the role as global head of commercial for financial lines before assuming the global leadership of full financial lines team at AGCS in 2019. Prior to joining Allianz, Williams spent 14 years with AIG, and held a number of increasingly senior financial lines regional leadership roles in Auckland, Johannesburg, Paris and London.

In his current role as global head of financial lines, Williams has led the remediation of the portfolio in challenging market conditions, notably in the directors & officers and cyber insurance classes, the company said in a statement. The turnaround has been underpinned with improvements in pricing tools, active portfolio steering capabilities and reinsurance purchasing to dampen volatility and improve sustainability of results, it highlighted. With this, AGCS has been able to pivot to a profitable growth strategy in Financial Lines during 2021, targeting new business opportunities across all regions supported by a significant expansion of its underwriting resources.

AGCS chief executive officer Joachim Mueller said of the leadership changes: “I welcome Shanil as a new member to the AGCS Board of Management, as we focus increasingly on profitable growth and market opportunities. As one of our best internal talents in underwriting and a highly respected team leader of a large global underwriting unit, he is ready to make the next step in his career and assume wider responsibility for AGCS’s underwriting performance and sustained business success.”

“I would like to thank Tony for his high personal commitment and contribution to the successful realignment of our corporate lines portfolio. On behalf of the AGCS Board of Management, I wish him all the best for his future, professionally and personally,” he added.

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