Top surety executive to lead specialty lines expansion at Applied

US-based global insurer and risk services firm  Applied Underwriters has set up a new surety business to be led by one of the top executives in this sector who served as the president of Argo Surety for the last 14 years.

Applied Underwriters has continued its specialty lines expansion with the launch of Applied Surety Underwriters, to be based in Houston. It will focus on large, commercial and contract surety business globally.

Joshua Betz (pictured) has joined the firm as president of Applied Surety Underwriters.

Betz has spent the last 14 years as president of Argo Surety where he created one of the top ten surety operations in the world from the ground up. Prior to that, he held various leadership roles in the surety space managing large commercial and contract surety clients at Travelers, CNA, and Reliance Surety.

Citing his executive leadership in the surety business for 25 years, Jamie Sahara, president of Applied Underwriters, said: “We have placed Joshua Betz at the head of this new practice for a number of reasons, notably the fact that we are accepting business already from sources across the globe that require a level of expertise that he brings to our team’s processes. Moreover, Joshua has had great success, with significantly less support than Applied will provide, in developing de novo startups and managing profitable enterprises for long term value and profitability.”

Applied chairman Steve Menzies added: “We are committed to the long-term discipline the surety sector requires and dedicated to the success of the producers who work with us for their clients’ best interests, all the while taking the long view that we can create immense value in these specialty, niche areas.”

Commenting on his new role, Betz said: “The prospect of joining Applied Underwriters, with its talented, entrepreneurial, top executives in each sector, is most attractive as is the commitment that Applied has made to a careful, yet no less aggressive approach to growth in the surety area, one in which I have served for better than 25 years.

“The dynamic environment engendered by Applied’s founders will serve to help attract more top-level talent and to produce the kind of profitable development in which I have played a key role, and, with resulting low loss ratios, have delivered unprecedented value to every participant in the surety pipeline. I am delighted to be part of Applied.”

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