Kettle hires Haddrell from Sompo Int. as Chief Underwriting Officer

Kettle, a deep-learning and artificial intelligence (AI) focused reinsurtech start-up, has made a key hire as it builds out its reinsurance platform, appointing William Haddrell, formerly of Sompo International, as its Chief Underwriting Officer.

Haddrell had been an underwriter and portfolio manager at the Sompo International owned third-party reinsurance capital and insurance-linked securities (ILS) fund manager Blue Capital Management.

He then became a Vice President and retrocession focused underwriter at Sompo International on the winding down of the Blue Capital listed fund operation, managing the firms property catastrophe retro book.

His career began at reinsurance firm RenaissanceRe in Bermuda in 2008 and Haddrell has also spent time in London for that company, before moving back to Bermuda and underwriting shop Hardy in 2013, before quickly moving to Blue Capital.

Once Haddrell completes his current work obligations, he will join Kettle as its CUO.

Co-Founder and CEO of Kettle Andrew Engler said, “We are all extremely excited to have attracted talent with the breadth of reinsurance market experience Will has built in his career. We believe this to be a pivotal moment for data science driven innovation in the risk assumption industries. Will has exactly the deal making skills we are looking for to bring together clients who need support and capital looking for opportunity.”

Haddrell will remain based in Bermuda for Kettle and aims to use the Kettle derived view of risk to create a better priced and liquid market for property catastrophe risks, the company said.

Co-founder of Kettle Nat Manning, the company’s COO, added, “We’ve spent the last 6 months hiring some amazing talent to build out the data science that underscores Kettle’s product and service offering. It’s great now to be able to hire our first employees based in Bermuda, especially in such a critical leadership role.”

“Bermuda has a wide and deep reservoir of reinsurance talent and is an essential global marketplace for risks transferring from one balance sheet to another. We’re thrilled that Will shares our vision for a future where data science plays the leading role in reducing the societal volatility we see today resulting from climate change,” Nigel Mortimer, Kettle Executive Chairman, also commented.

Kettle aims to enhance the understanding of catastrophe and climate risks, targeting becoming an intelligent source of risk for reinsurance capital as an MGA, starting with California wildfires.

Also read: AI focused reinsurtech Kettle licensed as Innovative Agent in Bermuda.