Willis adds Global Head of Alternative Risk Transfer solutions

Global insurance and reinsurance broker Willis Group has hired Marc Paasch as its new Global Head of ART Solutions, strengthening the broker’s position in the market for alternative risk transfer (ART) and tailored risk solutions.

Alternative risk transfer encompasses the provision of risk and insurance solutions that enable businesses to transfer and hedge risks that have often been considered uninsurable to a third-party balance sheet.

As such corporate solutions for catastrophe exposure, weather risks and also supply chain insurance products are included in the ART business sphere, areas that third-party and insurance-linked securities (ILS) capital can be expected to increasingly assist in the future.

Willis expects the addition of Paasch and his expertise will further bolster the broker’s ability to deliver these highly customised risk solutions to large clients.

Commenting on his appointment, Paasch stated; “Businesses today are considering more tailored and sophisticated risk transfer solutions. By focusing on the critical strategic risks facing an enterprise, alternative risk transfer solutions can provide businesses with innovative risk transfer options.”

Paasch will report to John Merkovsky, Willis’s Global Head of Risk & Analytics, who commented on the hire; “The addition of Marc to our Risk & Analytics team will enable Willis to leverage the risk insights gained through our cutting-edge analytics to deliver alternative techniques to hedge and transfer risk.”

Paasch joins Willis from Marsh where he was Managing Director, Head of Analytics and co-Head of Risk Consulting in Europe as well as a member of the Marsh France Executive Committee. Prior to his time at Marsh, Paasch held senior management positions in both Paris and New York, including at Allianz and Société Générale.