CGSC Restructures Asia Marine Team with New Hires, Latitude Brokers Launch

Cooper Gay Swett & Crawford (CGSC), the global wholesale and reinsurance broker, announced a repositioning and rebranding of its marine insurance business in Asia.

“Effective from 3rd March 2014, Latitude Brokers has launched in Hong Kong as the marine division of Cooper Gay in Asia,” said the announcement. “The current marine team under the leadership of Tom Fulford-Smith will be strengthened with the recruitment of three senior brokers.

“Andrew Brooker and Vanessa Toucas will be joining from FP Marine Risks and Charles D’Alton will be joining from Charles Taylor (Singapore) where he was underwriter for The Standard Club Asia Ltd. Along with Tom Fulford-Smith, all three will become directors of Latitude.”

CGSC also explained that in due course, “Latitude will become incorporated as a separate entity in its own right and, subject to regulatory approval, will trade as Latitude Brokers Ltd.”

CGSC’s CEO Toby Esser commented: “I am very pleased to welcome Andrew, Vanessa and Charlie to CGSC, and to be in partnership with them and Tom as we look to expand our marine business under the umbrella of our Global Marine Practice Group, led by Ruediger Hansel, Steve Barton and Ulfert Paulsen.

“Latitude will join Junge & Co in both Hamburg and Antwerp as our niche marine retail focused brands, whilst we retain the capability to provide our traditional wholesale and facultative support to existing and new clients.”

Ruediger Hansel, CEO of Junge, and Global Marine Practice Group Leader added: “The formation of Latitude is an important development of our marine business and strengthens our proposition to offer dedicated full service retail capability across all of the traditional marine disciplines. It is a key element of our global marine development plan.”

Source: Cooper Gay Swett & Crawford