Ardonagh’s Inver Re attracts top talent from rival Howden; seeks to ‘change the face of reinsurance’

The  Ardonagh Group has recruited a senior leader from rival Howden to focus on alternative sources of reinsurance capital and insurance-linked securities (ILS) at  Inver Reinsurance Brokers (Inver Re). He believes the company has potential to “change the face of reinsurance”.

Nick Griffiths (pictured) is joining Inver Re’s senior leadership team as a director, reporting to Ardonagh’s CEO of reinsurance and capital Steve Hearn.

Griffiths comes from Howden where he was an executive director in the firm’s reinsurance broking division, having joined the company in 2018. Prior to that, he worked at RFIB Group for a decade, latterly as head of broking of its reinsurance division.

Inver Re was established earlier this year to take a consultative, bespoke approach to the core discipline of treaty reinsurance and craft risk strategies to suit individual requirements by using a combination of traditional actuarial methods and sophisticated data science to provide new levels of insight and analysis.

Ardonagh recently completed its acquisition of the insurance and reinsurance broking operations of BGC Partners, creating the “largest independent specialty broker in the London market” with the Ardonagh Specialty and Capital platform now placing over $5 billion GWP on behalf of clients across the globe.

Hearn said: “It’s incredibly exciting to be getting the team in place to take Inver Re into the market as a re-imagined reinsurance business. It’s our aim to bring a fresh perspective, choice and flexibility to the market – and attracting and empowering top talent is absolutely key to doing so. I’m very much looking forward to working with Nick, whose expertise and energy is going to help us become a reinsurance business of scale and relevance - and in time a top five global player.”

Griffiths commented: “I can’t wait to get started with Inver Re. It’s a new entrepreneurial, independent platform - with the opportunity to really change the face of reinsurance. I’m genuinely excited to be part of its growth, and to harness the scale, resources and reach of the wider Ardonagh Group to do even more for clients.”

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