Bryan Bumsted and Chris Conway join Third Point Re in Bermuda

Bermuda based, hedge fund backed, reinsurer Third Point Reinsurance Company has made two new appointments of well-respected figures from the Bermuda reinsurance market, we can reveal. We heard rumours of these two hires last week and have had the appointments confirmed by Third Point Re.

Third Point Re was launched with the backing of New York based hedge fund Third Point LLC, who’s high-profile CEO Daniel Loeb committed $75m to Third Point Re’s initial capitalisation. The reinsurer has been making steady progress, raising $785m which they are now putting to work writing reinsurance business. The quality of the team seems to be an important factor at Third Point Re, judging by previous hires, and these two latest appointments are no exception.

The first of the new appointments see’s ex Q Re retrocession underwriter Bryan Bumsted joining Third Point Re. Bryan, previously of Lancashire and Everest Re was at the George Soros backed Q Re which unexpectedly closed down after Soros pulled his funds from the reinsurance vehicle. His experience in the property and catastrophe retro markets will be extremely useful to Third Point Re at the upcoming renewals when opportunities are likely to present themselves to secure attractive business.

The second new hire is Chris Conway, who up until July was Assistant Vice President of Reinsurance Underwriting at Axis Re Bermuda. Chris was seen as a rising star at Axis by observers. He joined Third Point Re at the end of July.

John Berger, Chairman and CEO of Third Point Reinsurance, told us after confirming that Bryan and Chris were joining the firm; “We are delighted to have people of such high quality join Third Point Re.”