Ventus co-founder Stuart Mercer joins Insurdata Advisory Board

Insurdata, an insurtech specialising in software and services to correct, create and augment peril-specific exposure and risk data for insurance and reinsurance carriers, has added the ex-Ventus co-founder Stuart Mercer to its Advisory Board.

Mercer is well known in the reinsurance and insurance-linked securities (ILS) communities, having co-founded Ventus Risk Management, a company focused on sourcing and underwriting property catastrophe and broader coastal property risks for a diverse range of capital providers, including insurance-linked securities (ILS) investors.

Ventus was subsequently acquired by Arch Capital Group and Mercer departed the company after a time.

Stuart Mercer was previously a co-founder and former Chief Risk Officer of reinsurance firm Validus Re and for a time the CEO of its ILS fund operation AlphaCat Managers.

Mercer has specific knowledge of the value of precise, high-resolution data in the underwriting cycle, having developed the Ventus proposition as a technology-enabled and focused MGA.

Mercer commented on the appointment, “The re/insurance industry is changing rapidly and having had the opportunity to look at the Insurdata technology in detail, it’s clear to me that Insurdata is at the forefront of that change. The data platform creates the foundational layer upon which the industry can reduce volatility and ensure their key metrics for underwriting, pricing and risk transfer are precise. I’m really looking forward to working with Jason and the team.”

Mercer will sit on the Insurdata Advisory Board alongside Eric Drattell and Marcus Nagel.

Drattell has legal, business and compliance expertise across privacy, technology transactions, licensing and cloud/SaaS computing. He is currently General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer for cloud-based FinTech company Roostify, and during his career had also been a Senior Vice President and General Counsel at catastrophe risk modelling specialist RMS.

Nagel is an insurance industry executive who has held senior positions at Zurich, including CEO of Zurich Germany, Chairman of Zurich Deutscher Herold and Global Head of IFA and broker business at Zurich Global Life.

Jason Futers, CEO of Insurdata, commented on the Advisory Board additions, “I am delighted to welcome Stuart onto the Insurdata Advisory Board. He has been at the forefront of the evolution of underwriting data and analytics throughout his career and brings an incredible depth of market insight. With Eric, Marcus and Stuart we have a truly outstanding team guiding our development as we grow Insurdata’s market presence and boost our ability to enable our clients to optimise pricing, underwriting and risk assessment decisions.”