CGSC North America adds reinsurance convergence new business exec

CGSC North America, part of the independent Cooper Gay Swett & Crawford global wholesale, underwriting management and reinsurance broking group, has hired a senior appointment in its business development team to focus on the reinsurance convergence market.

William K. (Wim) Ludington joins CGSC North America as Executive Vice President for Carrier Management and Alternative Markets. He will provide client carriers with a single point of contact for strategic partnership opportunities related to the $2.5 billion in premium sourced by CGSC from retail brokers across North America.

Part of the role will involve Ludington developing partnerships and new business opportunities by accessing alternative sources of insurance capital using structured capital markets products such as catastrophe bonds and insurance linked securities (ILS).

Ludington is the first hire specifically targeting the reinsurance convergence arena at CGSC North America that we’ve heard of. A new focus on the convergence or reinsurance and capital markets seems likely at Cooper Gay Swett & Crawford as the independent firm looks to bring new product and advisory options to carrier clients that might benefit from accessing alternative sources of reinsurance capital.

Having expertise in-house on ILS, catastrophe bonds and other capital markets backed reinsurance options is now vital for all reinsurance brokers and CGSC will benefit from the new product options this provides to its clients.

Ludington joins CGSC North America from Canaccord Genuity Inc. where he held a role as Head of the US Structured Products Sales team and has previously held positions at Marsh, JP Morgan, UBS, and CapRok Capital.

CGSC North America also announced two other hires, Mason Power joins as Chief Marketing Officer and Mark Smith joins as Senior Advisor to both Tom Ruggieri, CGSC North America’s CEO, and to the company’s Executive Management Committee.

Tom Ruggieri, CEO of CGSC North America commented on the hire; “Attracting individuals of the caliber of Wim, Mason and Mark to the team is a clear demonstration of our commitment to operational excellence while maintaining the core values that our customers expect. Their experience and expertise will also bring an important expansion to CGSC North America’s brokerage and underwriting capabilities.”