HDI Global plots new strategy to expand liability line

Germany-based Talanx Group's industrial lines insurer HDI Global is restructuring its liability line leadership as it plots a new strategy to get closer to its customers in Europe while expanding its international footing.

The company's liability line will now be steered from Hannover, London and Zurich, with Mark Appleton and Thomas Stamm taking on new roles.

Stamm will take over management of the European liability portfolio (excluding UK & Ireland) of HDI Global, while Appleton will be responsible for managing the liability portfolio outside of Europe (but including UK & Ireland).

Both will remain at their current locations in Zurich and London, respectively, and report directly to Mukadder Erdönmez, the HDI Global SE executive board member responsible for the liability line.

The pair will extend the central management of liability underwriting, which Ulrich Schulz (strategic steering, governance & risk) and Peter Tillmans (global risks) have belonged to up to now. The latter two will continue to be part of the new management team, which will be completed by Dietmar Illemann (claims).

HDI said a large proportion of its liability customers are based outside Germany. The reorganising and reorientation of the line’s architecture will help enhance closeness to the head offices of these customers and provide optimum support for them.

“HDI’s Liability Line forms the nucleus of the entire Talanx Group to which we belong. More than one hundred years ago, representatives of the German iron and steel industry founded the Haftpflichtverband der Deutschen Industrie as a mutual liability insurance association, so that the insurer could offer the representatives liability cover at attractive conditions,” said Erdönmez. “This still remains our function. We carry this out wherever our customers are. This used to be primarily in Germany."

"Today, our customers have locations throughout the world. We want to be there as well. That’s why we are expanding the management team of this traditional line and putting it on an international footing,” Erdönmez added.

Claire McDonald, managing director HDI UK & Ireland, commented: “Mark has known the international world of industrial liability insurance for more than thirty years and he is outstandingly networked in the London market. I’m delighted that he is making another career step in the HDI Group. This is an important signal for HDI and for our customers.”

Marc Luginbühl, managing director HDI Switzerland, added: “Thomas has more than thirty years of professional experience in underwriting of industrial liability risks for national and multinational companies. I am confident that our European liability customers will derive a great deal of benefit from his great level of expertise.”

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