AQR Re hires two reinsurance veterans to senior management team

Bermuda headquartered AQR Re, the reinsurance arm of Greenwich, CT investment management firm AQR Capital Management, has announced the hiring of two senior reinsurance industry executives to its senior management team, expanding its presence in Bermuda. The two executives are John M. Lummis, who has been hired to the role of Chief Executive Officer, and Paul L. Karon , who joins AQR Re as Vice Chairman.

John Lummis’ most recent role within the reinsurance industry was as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer at RenaissanceRe, a role he held from 1997 until 2006, where he was responsible for the reinsurers strategy, finance and operations. More recently, he has been working as a consulting advisor to various hedge funds and private equity funds with interests in the insurance or reinsurance sector. Before his time with RenaissanceRe he had several roles as a member of the management team of the insurance holding company USF&G Corp.

Paul Karon retired in January 2012 from his role as Chairman, Americas of reinsurance broker Aon Benfield, where he served as a member of the Global Executive Committee. He brings to AQR Re deep knowledge of catastrophe reinsurance and reinsurance broking. Prior to that, he was Chief Executive, President and Chief Operating Officer of Benfield Inc. and was on the Board of Benfield PLC, a publicly traded reinsurance broking firm acquired by Aon in 2008.

AQR said that with these hires are the firms latest step in its effort to develop products and strategies that combine capital markets expertise with reinsurance. AQR has itself a long and deep understanding of institutional investors needs, and the addition of these two senior reinsurance focused executives augments the firms skill and insight required to structure innovative solutions unique to insurance companies.

“We are continuing to invest in AQR Re because we believe we can build attractive returns-diversifying investments for our clients by applying our strengths — quantitative analysis, risk management and portfolio construction — to the reinsurance market,” commented David G. Kabiller, CFA, Co-Founding Principal. “Consistent with market conditions and available opportunities, we plan to grow this business, and believe that reinsurance presents a promising opportunity for our investors over the long run.”

AQR Capital Management, which launched AQR Re in January 2012, has approximately $79.5 billion of total assets under management as of March 31, 2013.

AQR has been fairly tight-lipped about the progress of its reinsurance arm, AQR Re, to date. The investment manager hired Andrew J. Sterge, PhD who was previously head of Pulsar Re, a reinsurance affiliate of the Magnetar hedge fund, before. It also hired Rick Montgomerie and Charlie Vaughan, two London based reinsurance professionals who previously worked for a Magnetar affiliate and are now both directors of Chard Re sourcing reinsurance business for ILS hedge funds.