Sompo International to Launch Specialty Operation in Spain; Executive Team Named

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Sompo International announced it will launch a specialty insurance underwriting operation in Barcelona, Spain.

Sompo currently has a London-based operation but must open EU-based headquarters in order to conduct business seamlessly after the U.K. exits the European Union. It has decided to move its post-Brexit headquarters to Luxembourg.

The new Spanish operation initially will be focused on management liability, professional indemnity and financial institutions lines of business, said Bermuda-based Sompo, which is a subsidiary of Sompo Holdings in Tokyo.

Thomas Mannsdorfer, executive vice president, will lead the new team. He is joined by Mathieu Borneuf, senior vice president. Both executives will be located in Barcelona.

Mannsdorfer joined Sompo International from ANV Global Services, a specialty lines provider in London and Barcelona, for which he served six years as director, M&A Insurance and more recently also as chief underwriting officer (CUO) International. His prior European underwriting experience focused on professional and financial lines products and product development. He held various roles at HCC Global, AIG, and Allianz in Spain, France and Switzerland. Mannsdorfer holds a doctor’s degree from the University of Fribourg (Switzerland), a LL.M. degree from the University of Virginia School of Law, and is a licensed attorney-at-law in Switzerland.

Borneuf joined Sompo International in January 2018 from Navigators where he established and was head of Management and Professional Liability for Continental Europe as well as Paris branch manager since 2014. Prior to that, Borneuf held a similar role at Torus Insurance, after joining that company in 2010 as head of Management Liability. Previously, he held various roles at Marsh Paris, AIG Australia and AIG Europe. Borneuf started his career as a professional lines underwriter at AIG after receiving a master’s degree in private law from the University of Paris II and a post graduate diploma in insurance from the Sorbonne.

Sompo International plans to introduce several additional professional lines products and underwriters to the new operation over the next few months, commented Graham Evans, CEO of London Market Insurance.

“The new team will work closely with our established London Market Insurance operation to offer a full suite of products to our international clients underwritten through both our company platform and Lloyd’s syndicate,” he added.

Jack Kuhn, CEO of Global Insurance commented, “Europe is a key area of growth for Sompo International and we continue to build a strategic presence on the continent. As we add specialty underwriting talent, we will be able to more effectively deliver a broader range of products to clients in these markets. Local presence and a distributed producer network will be critical to successful growth, especially as we plan for the post-Brexit environment.”

Source: Sompo International

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