Marsh MGU Victor hires capital markets lead as alternative focus deepens

Specialty underwriting manager and managing general underwriter (MGU) Victor Insurance Holdings, previously known as the Schinnerer Group, has hired a head of capital markets as it doubles-down on connecting primary risk with the capital markets.

Victor is part of the Marsh managing general agent (MGA) business and already well-known in the alternative capital space, having established Alternus, the commercial property facility arrangement, alongside Marsh and the world’s largest ILS fund manager Nephila Capital, and having acquired catastrophe focused underwriting manager ICAT (International Catastrophe Insurance Managers LLC) from the Paraline Group.

Victor is now strengthening its focus on delivering insurance business to both traditional and alternative capital with the hire of Eric Solash as Global Head of Capital Markets.

Solash will take on responsibility for driving Victor’s capital markets strategies globally across all classes of property and casualty insurance business.

Commenting on the appointment, Christopher Schaper, CEO of Victor, said, “As the property/casualty insurance industry evolves, Victor is at the forefront in creating innovative risk transfer solutions using both traditional and alternative capital capabilities. With Eric’s expertise and experience, we can bring new solutions and sources of capital to the marketplace providing insureds with more options than ever before.”

Solash has more than twenty years of capital markets, alternative funding and insurance investment banking experience. In his new role at Victor he will be based in New York and report directly to Schaper.

He was previously Managing Director and Head of Alternative Funding at General Electric Company, prior to which he led the insurance investment banking team at Freeman & Co. Solash has been working with Victor on a consulting basis since January 2018.

Victor’s continued shift towards bringing primary sources of insurance directly to the capital markets and ILS fund partners reflects the ongoing compression of the insurance and reinsurance market value-chain.

As these trends continue, it will be interesting to see how large the distribution to capital markets business could get for entities like Victor and parent Marsh, as well as how that affects the traditional value-chain of broker to insurer to reinsurer to retrocessionaire.

Victor is placing itself at the forefront of such trends, as it looks to bring the efficiency benefits of the capital markets direct to its primary insurance clients.