Horseshoe hires Crozet to head London office, drive Europe expansion

Bermuda-headquartered ILS and reinsurance management, servicing, risk transformation and fronting specialist Horseshoe Group has appointed Jean-Bernard Crozet as Senior Vice President – Advisory Services and Head of London Office, as the firm targets expansion in the European region.

Horseshoe has been targeting expansion with its new London office, especially now the United Kingdom has a more competitive insurance-linked securities (ILS) regulatory regime which is expected to result in more collateralised reinsurance and ILS fund business in the local market.

Crozet, who was most recently London Head of Underwriting Modelling at MS Amlin, will be tasked with leading Horseshoe’s worldwide advisory services, including working with the firms fund services group on valuation and transparency reporting.

At MS Amlin Crozet led the analytics function, including pricing, catastrophe modelling and exposure management for the whole MS Amlin group. He has more than two decades of experience in reinsurance, having previously been an Associate Director in the Actuarial Practice of PwC’s London office. In this role he founded PwC’s catastrophe risk, ILS and transfer pricing offerings, delivering products for a range of global markets.

“JB’s experience in building strong actuarial and underwriting practices at several well-respected institutions, along with his client relationships around the world, will help further deepen Horseshoe’s talent pool,” commented Andre Perez, CEO of Horseshoe. “His leadership and expertise, especially in the property catastrophe space is an excellent fit with our specialty in the ILS space, and I’m delighted that he is joining the Horseshoe Group. This is the third time JB and I will be working together, I have tremendous respect for his capabilities and expertise and I look forward to working with him again!”

Crozet will also take on actuarial and insurance advisory duties from Kathy Garrigan, who has now relocated from Bermuda to the USA but is expected to remain working for Horseshoe until mid-September.

“Kathy has laid down good foundations for valuation and reporting standards for the ILS funds we administer,” Perez said. “We look forward to having JB build on that foundation.”

“I could not be more thrilled to join Horseshoe at this exciting time in the Group’s growth trajectory,” said Crozet. “Horseshoe is uniquely positioned to provide independent ILS related advice & services to leading ILS Funds as well as insurance and reinsurance companies, and I look forward to helping expand our overall presence in Europe.”

Crozet began his reinsurance career in 1994 at PSA Finance in London, before progressing to AGF Insurance in 1996 and to CNA Re in 1998. In 1999, he joined Overseas Partners Re in Bermuda as Pricing Manager, later being promoted to Vice President, Actuarial and then to Vice President, Underwriting in 2001. After that he joined Alea Bermuda as VP and Underwriter.

“Adding a person of JB’s caliber and experience as the Head of our London office will undoubtedly strengthen our ILS presence in London where Mike Baker has recently transferred from our Gibraltar office and one other senior staff transfer will take place shortly,” explained Perez. “Having a talented three-person team in London, and the support of Horseshoe’s global team, will allow us to be closer and more responsive to our London and European clients”