Vaisala hires Descartes’ Schönach as EU Commercial Lead for Weather Risk Management

Vaisala, a global company that specialises in measurement instruments and intelligence for climate action, has appointed Lukas Schönach from Descartes Underwriting as European Commercial Lead for Weather Risk Management.

Schönach joins the firm following a six-year tenure at parametric specialist Descartes, where he most recently served as Commercial Strategy Manager.

He first joined Descartes in October 2019 as a Senior Business Developer, a role he held for three years before being promoted to Global Origination Practice Lead in September 2022.

Schönach also has a background in climate risk insurance.

Prior to joining Descartes, Schönach worked in climate risk insurance, contributing to G7 initiatives during his tenure at Germany’s GIZ.

Earlier in his career, he also held roles in consulting and financial markets.

In a LinkedIn post, Schönach said: “Happy to share that I am starting a new position as European Commercial Lead for Weather Risk Management at Vaisala / Vaisala Xweather. Looking forward to be working with the team around David Whitehead and to collaborate with brokers, insurers, MGAs, traders, and anyone looking to set up or advance weather risk transfers.”

Schönach’s appointment follows the recent hiring of Eric Wertz, formerly Senior Sales Engineer at Maxar Technologies.

Both appointments come as Vaisala continues to expand its sales team for parametric and weather risk transfer solutions, as part of the Vaisala Xweather strategy to strengthen market engagement.

Just over a year ago, Vaisala ventured into the insurance segment through its acquisition of Speedwell Climate, a provider of weather, catastrophe, and climate data, indices, and settlement services.

Speedwell’s suite of data tools and services had already been adopted across the insurance and reinsurance markets, which therefore made the firm a strategic addition to Vaisala’s growing climate intelligence offering.