TigerRisk poaches Swiss Re exec for ILS role

Reinsurance broker TigerRisk Partners has appointed Philipp Kusche as partner and global head of insurance-linked securities (ILS) and capital solutions.

In his new position, Kusche will develop ILS and other insurance risk-to-capital solutions. He will report to Tony Ursano, president of TigerRisk.

Kusche joins TigerRisk from Swiss Re Capital Markets in New York where he was the head of ILS structuring and origination, responsible for creating and executing billions of dollars of cat bonds, sidecars, contingent capital structures and other alternative capital products. In addition to such sell-side activities, he structured, priced and executed a large number of cat derivatives.

"Philipp Kusche is a highly experienced reinsurance capital markets expert with a keen perspective on the innovation, disruption and evolution occurring in our industry,” said Ursano. “At TigerRisk, Philipp will have the clear remit to continue to architect new structures and products which more closely and efficiently link risk with capital for the benefit of our clients."

Kusche added: “At TigerRisk, I hope to achieve two goals. First I look forward to being a truly independent and objective advisor, able to provide clients truly holistic solutions using the entire spectrum of capital independent of its source, whether from traditional reinsurance or the capital markets.

“My second goal is to develop a range of new, more efficient risk-transfer solutions using instruments designed to attract highly sophisticated insurance risk specialists at hedge funds, large pension funds, institutional investors, etc., who have the requisite knowledge to assess the risks, as well as products allowing broader access from non-specialist institutional investors.”

Rod Fox, founder and chief executive officer of TigerRisk, added: “I am delighted to welcome Philipp to TigerRisk. His addition to our team is a continuation of our build-out of a world-class capital markets and advisory capability. In addition, Philipp’s combined reinsurance and capital markets background is a perfect fit for our holistic and embedded approach to the business.”