Nephila to name Maria Rapin sole CEO of Nephila Climate unit

Nephila Climate, the weather and climate risk and reinsurance focused unit of the largest insurance-linked securities (ILS) fund manager Nephila Capital, has named Maria Rapin as its sole CEO.

Rapin, who has worked at Nephila Capital since 2015, was most recently a Co-CEO of the Nephila Climate unit, alongside fellow Co-CEO Richard Oduntan.

Oduntan is now set to depart Nephila Climate, we can report, which has prompted the move to consolidate leadership of this important climate risk transfer focused division under a single Chief Executive Officer. He will continue to work with Nephila over a gradual transition period, reflecting his desire for a smooth process after over twelve years at the firm.

Rapin is also a member of the Climate advisory board and firm-wide ESG Committee at Nephila Capital and has played an important role in driving strategy, as well as overseeing the investment process for Nephila’s climate strategies, with a goal of enabling scalable capital to be mobilised to support climate resilience through catastrophe and climate insurance, reinsurance or risk transfer.

Prior to joining Nephila and joining its San Francisco office, Rapin worked as an ILS portfolio manager with SCOR Global Investments in Paris, the asset management arm of the global reinsurance company, for two years.

Previously, Rapin worked for Swiss Re Capital Markets in London, the insurance-linked securities (ILS) focused arm of the global reinsurance group, with a focus on ILS product distribution. Prior to London, she was based in New York for the reinsurer, during her nine years with that group.

Greg Hagood, co-founder and co-CEO of Nephila, explained to us, “We appreciate what Richard did to build the foundation of Nephila Climate and we are excited about the prospects for the business ahead under Maria’s leadership.”

Nephila has ambitious plans for the climate risk transfer and climate ILS business, with the increasing focus across the world on resilience, sustainability and climate exposure set to drive opportunities for responsive climate risk financing structures and ILS investment opportunities in that segment.

Nephila has already been focusing on ESG investing, with its own origination-first strategy in the Climate business perhaps one of the most ESG appropriate strategies in ILS already.

The company told us it is working to develop more impact and climate risk transfer solutions, backed by its investor base and expansion of the team at Nephila Climate to support that is already underway.