Endurance adds Grundmeyer for weather risk origination role

Endurance Global Weather, the weather-driven risk management products division of Bermuda reinsurance firm Endurance Specialty Holdings, has announced the hire of Michael Grundmeyer as Director of Origination for the Americas.

Endurance Global Weather, formed when Endurance bought weather risk management solutions specialist Galileo Weather Risk Management, offers weather risk management solutions to corporations and municipalities to provide insurance and reinsurance protection against variations in weather conditions and weather-driven commodity prices.

The origination role is a new one and perhaps signals the importance of these weather risk transfer operations at reinsurers like Endurance. Weather risk management and transfer are a strong complement to traditional insurance and reinsurance operations, providing an outlet which can have a unique offering, of tailored solutions for large clients. Something reinsurers will be attracted to as a business opportunity in the current market environment.

Grundmeyer joins Endurance Global Weather from 3TIER Inc., a technology and data analytics firm serving the renewable energy industry with data including weather metrics and visualisation. At 3Tier Grendemeyer held the role of Managing Director since 2008, responsible for developing financial risk management tools for energy trading companies as well as wind and solar project developers and financiers.  Prior to that Grundemeyer held business and product development roles with Merrill Lynch Global Markets and Koch Energy Trading.

Martin Malinow, President of Endurance Global Weather, commented on the hire; “Michael brings a broad range of experience and relationships which he’s developed over his two decades working in traditional and renewable energy, project finance and weather risk management. This unique background will help EGW improve our product line and further assist our global client base in executing their risk management strategies.”

Grundmeyer, who will be based in Seattle for Endurance, added; “I am excited to join the EGW team as I believe the continued growth of the weather risk management business will hinge on the development and execution of innovative weather-driven financial products to address evolving risks in a dynamic and competitive global business environment. EGW is well positioned to continue its leadership role given its global distribution platform, ample capacity and strong credit rating.”

As we recently wrote here, these weather risk management and weather derivatives solutions units are invaluable to reinsurance firms in the currently challenging, structurally changing market. They offer customised solutions, allowing reinsurers to show off their expertise in-depth to create solutions to hedge weather and commodity risk, while helping clients to smooth their earnings.