TransRe restructures senior underwriting leadership

TransRe, the Alleghany owned reinsurance brand name for Transatlantic Holdings, has restructured its senior underwriting leadership, making Paul Bonny and Ken Brandt Co-Presidents of Global Underwriting Operations and promoting a number to fill in their previous roles.

The Co-President of Global Underwriting Operations role is a new one at TransRe and signals a further strengthening of the reinsurance operational structure at the company likely driven by the continued growth of its book in recent years.

Paul Bonny was most recently the President of TransRe’s Europe and Asia Pacific Business Unit, which includes the London Market, Continental Europe, Middle East, Asia, Australasia and Africa regions. He has been with the reinsurer since 1982, working in a range of increasingly senior roles leading underwriting teams across facultative and treaty reinsurance business. Bonny is also on the Board of the IUA in London.

Ken Brandt was most recently President of TransRe’s North American Business Unit, which includes the US Broker, US Direct, Canada and Bermuda teams. He has been with the firm for almost 14 years and was instrumental in its Direct strategy development.

Lisa Moser, who has been with TransRe for more than 15 years, has been promoted to the newly created role of Global Property Management Leader and will report direct to the CEO. This position will see Moser supporting TransRe’s underwriting teams and working alongside them to optimise the global insurance and reinsurance portfolio. Moser was previously head of TransRe’s property underwriting team.

Paul McKeon, previously the Chief Underwriting Officer for North America and who has worked at TransRe since 1994, has been promoted to President, North America Underwriting, replacing Ken Brandt.

Elizabeth Geary, who has been with TransRe since 2003 and was most recently the firms Global Head of Cyber, has been promoted to Chief Underwriting Officer, North America, to replace the also promoted Paul McKeon.

Finally, Rhett Hewitt a cyber focused underwriter who has been at TransRe since 2008 has been promoted to Global Cyber Leader, replacing Geary and John Fugit, who has been TransRe’s Retrocession Manager since 2014 is promoted to the New York Property Leader role, replacing Moser.

TransRe is positioning its underwriting business for continued growth with these changes, promoting long-serving employees into increasingly senior positions and building out a structure to allow their experience to be leveraged, while others move up through the ranks.

The company said these changes “reflect the changing business environment in which TransRe operates,” positioning it to make the most of opportunities, while being from within they also demonstrate the strength in depth at the re/insurer.

TransRe is active in the third-party capital space, with its TransRe Capital Partners unit managing investor funds within reinsurance related structures and arranging private transactions direct with ILS participants.

The company has a long-established Pangaea series of collateralized reinsurance sidecars, has sponsored catastrophe bonds and also has fronted for selected ILS players in recent months.

The strength in its underwriting leadership will allow TransRe to make the most of third-party reinsurance capital, partnering with investors that look for underwriting experience and excellence.