Endurance lures XL marine expert

Endurance Specialty Holdings has appointed Christopher Smith as a senior vice president with responsibility for building and leading a new Ocean Marine insurance unit writing bluewater hull, brownwater hull, marine liability and cargo coverage.

During a 30 year career, Smith has focused exclusively on marine insurance, developing strong underwriting expertise in this niche market.

Smith joins Endurance from XL Insurance where he launched a Hull business in 2000 as part of a team that started XL's Marine and Energy Department. He then went on to become Product Head for XL's Marine Offshore Energy lines in the Americas and served as chief underwriter for that business for the last five years.

Prior to that, Smith was a marine underwriter with a focus on bluewater hull accounts at Reliance National, American International Marine Agency (AIG) and American Hull Insurance Syndicate.

Jack Kuhn, chief executive of Global Insurance, commented: “Chris brings to us a depth of understanding of the ocean marine market as well as connections with specialty brokers across the US developed over many years of underwriting. We are especially pleased to welcome Chris to the Endurance team as we continue to add new specialty products to our insurance offerings.”