BMS hires ILS experienced Jani Kohonen to US reinsurance team

Insurance and reinsurance broking group BMS has announced a new hire bringing additional ILS market expertise to the brokers U.S. operations, with Jani Kohonen set to join the company from his most recent role at StarStone.

Kohonen had most recently led StarStone’s insurance-linked securities (ILS) focused initiative in the U.S. Excess & Surplus (E&S) Property insurance space.

That initiative saw him working alongside MGA partners to source and underwrite a profitable book of catastrophe focused E&S property insurance business, using reinsurance capacity sourced from a leading ILS fund as the capacity to back the book.

Kohonen joins BMS as a senior vice president and also the brokers’ Atlanta branch manager, effective January 29th 2020.

He will be based in the Atlanta office and will report directly to Pete Chandler, President & CEO of BMS Re US.

Kohonen brings more than 15 years’ experience in the insurance, reinsurance and risk market to BMS.

At StarStone he was responsible for overseeing the E&S risk ILS initiative and underwriting strategy that helped bring ILS capital closer to the front of the market-chain, prior to which he worked at Aspen Insurance in New York between 2007 and 2017 in senior roles with a particular focus on catastrophe risk management. His career began at Arch Insurance in 2005.

Chandler commented on the hire, “We have seen an increase in demand for the type of tailored insurance solutions and personalised advice that BMS is renowned for among our client base and beyond. We are therefore committed to expanding our team and further increasing our presence in the US throughout 2020.

“With market leaders like Jani joining BMS, we look forward to building out our product offering and strengthening our US reinsurance operations. Jani’s specialised knowledge in catastrophe risk and market relationships will be an invaluable asset to the team and we would therefore like to welcome him warmly to BMS.”