Willis Re swoops for Canopius exec to build agriculture business in Asia

Willis Re, the reinsurance division of broker Willis Towers Watson, has set up an agriculture team in Asia Pacific with the appointment of Canopius executive David Gregori.

Gregori will serve as head of agriculture for Asia Pacific. Based in Hong Kong, he will lead the new team and develop innovative insurance solutions to better protect farmers throughout the region.

Using a data-driven analytics approach, the team will provide customised solutions to address the diverse range of risks and business challenges faced by its clients in agriculture industries around crops, livestock, fish farms and forestry.

Before his move to Willis Re, Gregori spent more than four years as head of global agriculture at Canopius in Singapore. Prior to that, he was an agriculture underwriter at Partner Re. Gregori has been focused on crop insurance for the last 12 years and was involved in the design of a subsidised Moroccan Crop Insurance Scheme, covering approximately one million hectares of farms.

Additionally, Willis Re has also made two new appointments for its agriculture business in India and China.

Ajay Rakhe will lead the agriculture business in India as vice president, treaty – agriculture. He is based in Willis Re’s Mumbai office and is responsible for developing and managing the agriculture treaty business along with designing other rural products for clients in India. Prior to Willis Re, Rakhe worked in international reinsurance and insurance consulting and broking services.

Simiao He, associate director of reinsurance, will lead the agriculture business in China and is based in Willis Re’s Beijing office. He spent five years at Swiss Re as an agriculture reinsurance underwriter.

Mark Morley, head of Willis Re, Asia Pacific, said: “Asia faces extreme adverse weather events such as typhoons, large scale floods and drought. These bring higher risk of yield shortfalls and failures which can impact farmers, companies and employment, especially with one out of three Asian people working in the agriculture industry. It is therefore important to use agriculture insurance as a tool to help farmers mitigate the financial and production risks and protect their livelihood.

"The addition of David, Ajay and Simiao to the agriculture team, and their international and local knowledge will enhance the value we provide to our clients and partners in the agriculture insurance market.”

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