Brit hires Cornell Fox & Masa Kitade to Sussex Capital team

Specialty insurance and reinsurance player Brit Ltd. has made two new senior hires to the team of its Sussex Capital ILS management and collateralised reinsurance platform, adding well-known insurance-linked securities (ILS) executives Cornell Fox and Masa Kitade in Bermuda.

Cornell Fox has joined Sussex Capital as Head of Investor Relations and Business Development, while Masa Kitade has joined the ILS unit as Head of Business Development, Asia.

Brit has been expanding its Sussex Capital ILS activities in recent years, having taken its third-party assets under management (AuM) to more than $525 million in 2021.

The unit has launched new funds and strategies and, as we explained earlier today, Brit has benefited from increased income from third-party capital management, while the Sussex structures have also been used to channel funding to its algorithmic Ki Syndicate.

These new hires clearly show an intention to continue the expansion of the Sussex Capital ILS platform at Brit, given their investor relations and business development focus.

Cornell Fox, as the new Head of Investor Relations and Business Development for Sussex Capital, brings significant experience from his time at Validus and now AIG owned ILS specialist manager AlphaCat Managers, as well as at Lutece, which became Peak Capital.

Fox joined AlphaCat back in 2013 and then Lutece in 2018, so has a long track-record in investor relations for insurance-linked securities (ILS) fund businesses. Fox began his career at Hiscox in reinsurance operations, in 2011.

Masa Kitade is also a well-known and experienced ILS sector executive, having worked in Japan, Bermuda and Singapore always in reinsurance and ILS roles.

Kitade worked at Mitsubishi Corporation in Japan from 200 for a decade in structured reinsurance, before moving to Bermuda to co-found Pentelia Diamond Capital Management, a joint venture ILS manager with Mitsubishi and Pentelia.

He then went to Singapore for two years to work for Aon in reinsurance, to lead on Japanese business.

Before returning to Bermuda in 2012 as CEO of Eastpoint Asset Management, a Japan-linked ILS fund manager.

Kitade departed from Eastpoint in 2018 and spent a few years working with Mercury Capital Management, the ILW focused fund manager in Bermuda.

He joined Sussex Capital this year and will now lead business development activities in the Asia region, which is a key investor market for the insurance-linked securities (ILS) space.

View details of dedicated ILS fund managers and reinsurers offering ILS style investments in our Insurance-Linked Securities Investment Managers & Funds Directory.