Peter Nakada leaving RMS to move to Stone Ridge Asset Management

We’re pleased to reveal one of the most interesting news stories of this years Monte Carlo Rendez-vous that Peter Nakada, Managing Director of Capital Markets at risk modelling firm RMS, is leaving to take up a role at asset manager Stone Ridge Asset Management.

Nakada told Artemis himself about the move just minutes ago, appearing very excited to be moving to a different, investor focused, side of this growing market of risk transfer to the capital markets and investment.

Peter Nakada has been with RMS since 2005 and has been one of the firms key spokespeople and experts on the convergence of capital markets and reinsurance risk, catastrophe bond modelling and innovation, longevity risk transfer and other topics related to the cession of risk to alternative capital.

Now, Nakada is joining one of the newest and most interesting asset managers in the insurance-linked securities space, Stone Ridge Asset Management, a firm which has become the first to tap the mutual funds space as a way accessing investment capital for catastrophe risk allocation.

Stone Ridge leverages networks of registered investment advisors to raise capital and has been extremely successful too. The firm, run by ex-Magnatar Capital co-head of portfolio management Ross Stevens, has now reached $1.8 billion of ILS assets under management in its ILS and reinsurance-linked investment funds in a very short amount of time (under two years).

The growth rate of Stone Ridge has been impressive to watch, but has not been without its detractors due to the firms mutual firm model which sees it attract some capital from investors which are considered to be ‘retail’ in nature. However the firm is so far making all the right noises in terms of its development and the addition of Nakada, as an extremely experience catastrophe risk professional, will be a clear positive for the firms profile.

Hiring Peter Nakada is a real coup for Stone Ridge. Nakada, who we’ve known for many years, is one of the ILS markets’ consummate experts, with an innovative eye for opportunity, an analytical skill set and an understanding of the motivations that brings investors to an asset class such as ILS. Nakada also has a clear vision of how technology and capital together can firmly disrupt the risk transfer world and enable investors to access the returns available from it.

Alongside his clear skills and experience in catastrophe risk analytics and also the longevity market, Nakada will be a huge asset to Stone Ridge and it will be interesting to see how the firm continues to develop with his support in-house.