30 June 2016 Insurance

AGCS appoints chief underwriting officer

Specialist insurer Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty (AGCS) has appointed Paul O’Neill as chief underwriting officer specialty, effective October 1 2016.

O’Neill, as a new board of management member for AGCS, will oversee the energy, marine, aviation and entertainment lines of business.

He succeeds Bill Scaldaferri who takes over as AGCS board responsibility for North America from Art Moossmann as of July 1.

According to AGCS, 46 percent of its overall gross written premiums of €8.1 billion were produced by AGCS North America.

O’Neill is currently the global head of marine an energy, a role he has held since 2005. He initially worked in the energy industry prior to moving into the insurance sector, where he performed risk engineering reviews for the London insurance market.

While working at Lloyd’s, he transitioned into underwriting and later joined Allianz as the regional manager for energy in Singapore in 2003.

Simon Buxton, currently AGCS global head of reinsurance, will succeed O’Neill as global head of marine and energy on October 1 2016. He will remain based in the London office of AGCS, and a successor for his current reinsurance responsibilities will be named, according to the company, in due course.

Buxton has over 20 years of experience in the reinsurance industry, having previously served as head of reinsurance solutions for Allianz Risk Transfer (ART).

Prior to ART, he worked a number of consulting and underwriting positions in Bermuda, Argentina and in the UK.

Scaldaferri, with his focus now on North America market, will hand over his current board responsibility for ART to Hartmut Mai, who is chief underwriting officer Corporate for AGCS.

Chris Fischer Hirs, AGCS chief executive officer, said: “Paul will be an excellent addition to the AGCS Board of Management, with his strong technical underwriting expertise and deep knowledge of global insurance markets.

“On behalf of the AGCS Board of Management, I welcome him to our global leadership team and look forward to working with him in his new role. With his strong understanding of both traditional and alternative insurance solutions, Simon is well positioned to lead our global Marine and Energy underwriting teams.

“Our corporate clients increasingly look to us to help them develop custom-built solutions to both established and new risks. By leveraging our combined expertise, we can further expand our services in this fast growing and highly specialised area.”

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