Specialty lines focused Lloyd’s of London managing general agent (MGA) Sciemus is rebranding to now be called Occam Underwriting (taking its name from Occam’s razor) and at the same time one CEO has departed, another been named, and the firm continues to look to alternative capacity providers.
Sciemus specialises in analysing and accessing niche risks, including cyber risk, space risks, energy and other niche but growing classes of insurance or reinsurance.
Rick Welsh the CEO of Sciemus has resigned from the firm, moving on to pursue other activities.
In his place, Lance Gibbins, who was the Chairman and acting co-CEO of Sciemus already, will become Chairman and the CEO of the company.
Head of Cyber risk, Dan Carr, will remain in place to lead and develop this line of business at Occam Underwriting, while Phil Duffin stays on as Head of Space and Ian Green as Head of the recently relaunched Power underwriting business at the firm.
Commenting on the rebrand and changes Gibbins said, “This marks the start of a new phase in which Occam is seeing expansion of its MGA footprint in emerging and complex risk classes. We will continue with this expansion and continue to consider capacity alternatives.”
The firm has always been open to discussions with third-party investors and ILS funds, particularly in the cyber lines of business where it has seen considerable traction due to its expertise and unique way of looking at peak cyber risks, such as control systems and business interruption.
The firm last year had signed an investment partnership with HSCM Bermuda, the ILS, reinsurance and transportation finance investment firm established by ex-Goldman Sachs structured finance head Michael Millette, and also secured a financial investment from HSCM Bermuda’s clients.
That openness to different forms of insurance or reinsurance capital looks set to continue under the new Occam Underwriting brand and with Gibbins taking over the day-to-day running of the firm.
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