Liberty International Underwriters adds to senior management

Liberty International Underwriters (LIU), subsidiary of Liberty Mutual Insurance, has appointed William Bell as senior vice president (SVP) of environmental, Mike Nukk as SVP of marine, and Rick Niehaus as SVP of energy and construction.

All three executives will be based in LIU’s New York office and will report to Michael Finnegan, chief underwriting officer for LIU’s US operations.

Bell is has nearly 30 years of insurance industry. As SVP of US environmental, he will have responsibility for contractor and professional services liability, fixed site pollution legal liability, contractors’ pollution liability, storage tank third party liability, and LIU’s environmental advantage product suite, which brings together in one policy: Environmental Impairment Liability (EIL), General Liability (GL), and Errors & Omissions (E&O).

Nukk joined LIU in 2000 and relocated to London in 2009 where he developed and launched the EMEA marine strategy for Liberty Specialty Markets, Liberty Mutual’s specialty lines operation in London. His most recent position was vice president, marine underwriting manager EMEA.

In his new role as SVP of marine, Nukk will lead marine operations for LIU in the US as well as have global product responsibility for LIU’s marine line of business.

Niehaus was most recently SVP of LIU’s US energy business, where he managed a sizeable energy portfolio of oil/gas and power generation business. An 11-year veteran of LIU, Niehaus is responsible for creating LIU’s construction product line, which he has grown into a multi-million dollar book. In his new role, Niehaus now has responsibility for all of LIU’s energy and construction business in the US.

“These appointments reflect LIU’s commitment to top talent and to growing US operations through stronger collaboration across specialty lines, product innovation, and improved broker access,” said Finnegan.

“We are proud of our existing bench strength and our ability to attract leading external candidates. Will, Mike and Rick represent the best mix of promoting from within and hiring externally and their combined years of experience will help them provide brokers with exceptional risk evaluation.”