Allianz swoops on AIG amid two leadership exits in major line of business

Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty (AGCS),  Allianz group’s specialist corporate insurer, has tapped AIG’s US retail property chief underwriting officer for its top property leadership role following the exit of Maria Grace and another executive who headed its political violence unit.

Grace left AGCS in late 2021, after only a few months in the post to return to Everest Re, where she served as the chief underwriting officer for property and inland marine for the insurance business until May. Grace joined Everest Insurance in January this year as head of international property, according to her LinkedIn.

Mike Martin (pictured) is appointed new global head of property at AGCS, reporting to CUO corporate Shanil Williams. He will be based in AGCS’s Atlanta office. While Srdjan Todorovic has been promoted to head of global political violence & hostile environment solutions based in London. This unit is part of AGCS’s property line of business and provides crisis management solutions to international companies.

In his new role, Martin will be responsible for AGCS’ property line of business that provides comprehensive All Risks property insurance solutions covering physical damage and business interruption for large corporates across all sectors worldwide, from single premises to multi-location programmes. In 2021, property contributed about 11 percent to AGCS’s global gross written premium of €9.5 billion.

Martin has over 35 years of experience in international property underwriting, most recently with AIG, where he currently is chief underwriting officer - US retail property with responsibility for leading the property underwriting transformation strategy and driving technical excellence. Prior to that, he held various insurance industry executive roles at Velocity Risk Underwriters, Liberty Mutual, XL, and Industrial Risk Insurers, including roles in the US, Bermuda, and Switzerland.

Todorovic succeeds Björn Reußwig who leaves AGCS to pursue interests outside of Allianz from July 1. He joined AGCS in April 2015 as head of terrorism, regional unit London.

Williams commented: “A warm welcome to Mike and congratulations to Srdjan. I’m very pleased to bring Mike into our underwriting leadership team with his international and North American experience, which reflects the diversity of our global portfolio. His combination of technical excellence in underwriting and a strong trading mentality will help us to growth profitably in Property in the years ahead, including in the strategically important North American market.

“Srdjan has established himself as an industry expert in the Political Violence & Terrorism segment and he is exactly the right person to continue to expand our services for clients as we broaden our Property insurance offering, building on Björn’s great work in this area. We all wish Björn well in his future career beyond Allianz.”

Did you get value from this story?  Sign up to our free daily newsletters and get stories like this sent straight to your inbox.