AXIS appoints Ben Rubin to head up third-party reinsurance capital activities

Bermuda based global insurance and reinsurance group AXIS Capital Holdings Limited has announced a new appointment to head up its activities in third-party reinsurance capital management. Ben Rubin, previously in investment banking at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, has been hired as Executive Vice President, Capital Markets at AXIS Capital.

AXIS Capital is one of the Bermudian re/insurance groups that has been rumoured to be laying the groundwork for a more concerted effort into third-party capital management, to try to capitalise on the current interest in and growth of reinsurance-linked investments and alternative reinsurance capital. With this hire the AXIS Capital’s ambition to attract external capital to leverage for underwriting purposes and capital management fee income becomes clearer.

The role, EVP, Capital Markets, Ben Rubin takes on is a newly created one within AXIS Capital. In this role Rubin will be responsible for developing and managing relationships with third-party capital providers in support of the global specialist underwriting operations at AXIS.

Rubin joins from a position at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where most recently he held the role of director in the firms Investment Banking unit in New York. During his time at BAML, Rubin worked across capital markets, mergers and acquisitions, private equity and insurance-linked securities. He was involved in the creation and execution of a number of reinsurance related financings globally including sidecars, catastrophe bonds and risk transfer transactions.

Rubin will report directly to Jay Nichols, Chief Executive Officer of AXIS Re and his new position becomes effective from the 8th July.

Commenting on the hire, Nichols said; “I have worked closely with Ben on a number of ventures over the years that brought innovative alternative reinsurance structures to the market. He is a seasoned professional whose expertise will be instrumental in leveraging our strong global specialist underwriting franchises. I expect Ben’s contributions will be invaluable in leading AXIS into a leadership position in the rapidly expanding convergence of reinsurance and the capital markets.”