14 December 2016 Insurance

XL Catlin bolsters North America M&A business with two directors

XL Catlin has appointed Joseph Laws and Michael McGowan as directors of M&A (mergers & acquisitions) Insurance in North America to capitalise on growing activity in 2017.

Both Laws and McGowan will be based in New York and will report to the head of XL Catlin’s global M&A insurance, Brian Benjamin.

Before joining XL Catlin, McGowan served Chubb as vice president helping build its transactional risk practice, leading the structuring and underwriting of representations and warranties insurance.

Prior to Chubb, he held positions as an M&A and private equity attorney at Focus Financial Partners, and as an associate at law firm Vinson & Elkins.

Laws joins XL Catlin from DLA Piper where he was a corporate associate acting as an underwriter's counsel. He previously worked for Kirkland & Ellis for five years.

Benjamin said: “We are excited to enlist Joe and Michael's expertise as we ramp up our M&A insurance operation in North America to deliver best-in-class service and market leading solutions.

"The continued expansion of the global M&A transactional risk insurance market, with both private equity firms and strategic buyers increasingly realizing the benefits of these products as critical to executing on their M&A strategies, offers us an opportunity build on XL Catlin's track record of delivering underwriting excellence and offering innovative solutions for complex risks.”

He added: "We look forward to unveiling new transactional risk products that will allow both deal professionals and clients to maximize deal valuations, enhance the bid process in competitive auctions, and bridge gaps which may otherwise prevent parties from completing a deal.

"By leveraging the deep transactional M&A expertise and industry relationships that both Joe and Michael bring to our team, we are seeking to build an underwriting platform that will quickly distinguish itself amongst our broker partners for its flawless execution and focused underwriting."

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