People Moves: Danish Insurer Tryg Names Brammer as CEO, Succeeding Hübbe; AXA XL Appoints Cerquenich as Senior Risk Consultant, Marine, UK & Lloyd’s

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Danish Insurer Tryg Names Brammer as CEO, Succeeding Hübbe

The Supervisory Boards of Tryg A/S and Tryg Forsikring A/S announced that Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Morten Hübbe has decided to step down.

Hübbe (51) will be succeeded by Chief Commercial Officer Johan Kirstein Brammer (46), effective June 1, 2023.

When Brammer joined Tryg in 2016, he spearheaded a successful transformation of Tryg’s Danish private business and was subsequently appointed CCO and member of the Executive Board in 2018. Brammer had a decisive role in the acquisition of RSA’s Scandinavian activities. Since his appointment to the Executive Board in 2018, Brammer’s potential to one day lead the company has been evident, the company said in a statement.

Brammer holds a law degree from University of Copenhagen and started his career as a lawyer with Kromann Reumert. Later, he added an MBA from Australian Graduate School of Management and a graduate diploma in Finance from Copenhagen Business School. During his career, he also worked at McKinsey & Co, Carlsberg, Egon Zehnder and Danish telco TDC.

Hübbe joined Tryg at the age of 30 and held the position of group CFO for eight years until he was appointed group CEO in 2011. The acquisition of RSA’s Scandinavian activities in 2020 was a milestone in Hübbe’s career. After having led the company for 12 years, he now wants to step down to pursue a career at a non-executive level and have more time for family and other interests.

During his tenure on Tryg’s Executive Board, Hübbe has mentioned publicly he didn’t want to remain in an executive role until typical retirement age. Having held executive positions from a very young age, he has had an aspiration to step back as an operational leader much closer to the age of 50 rather than the more usual age around 60, Tryg explained.

The company also announced the appointment of Mikael Kärrsten as chief technical officer and Alexandra Bastkær Winther as chief commercial officer, both internal promotions.

Kärrsten (47) has more than 20 years of experience in the insurance industry and comes from a position as head of Group PPU (Price, Product, Portfolio Management and Underwriting) in Tryg. He has previously held several senior leadership positions with Codan and Trygg-Hansa, including head of Underwriting.

Winther (37) moves from the position of CEO of Alka Insurance (a stand-alone entity within the Tryg group). She has been with Tryg since 2020 where she (prior to her appointment to Alka), as head of Group Strategy and M&A, played a key role in the acquisition of RSA’s Scandinavian activities (Trygg-Hansa and Codan Norway). As chief commercial officer, Winther will take over Brammer’s current areas of responsibilities, which covers enhancement of commercial value creation across the group, the integration and realization of synergies from acquisitions as well as the corporate strategy function.

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AXA XL Appoints Cerquenich as Senior Risk Consultant, Marine, UK & Lloyd’s

AXA XL announced the appointment of Diego Cerquenich as senior risk consultant, Marine, UK & Lloyd’s, effective immediately.

Capt. Cerquenich will work with the marine underwriting team to further develop risk consultancy capabilities for clients and brokers. He will report to Chris McGuire, Head of Risk Consulting, UK & Lloyd’s while also working closely with Pascal Matthey, Chief Risk Consulting Officer, Marine.

Cerquenich joins AXA XL from ABL Group, the London-based energy and marine consultant.

As a master mariner, Capt. Cerquenich has extensive maritime and shipping knowledge, including command experience on dry bulk cargo vessels. In 2014, he turned his specialist skills to marine consultancy, focusing on investigating naval accident/incident, marine advice and charter party disputes as an expert witness and marine warranty surveyor.

“Our risk consultants play a vital role in helping to guide our clients by providing market leading risk consulting services, while at the same time, supporting our underwriters’ risk selection and assessment,” commented Sundeep Khera, global chief underwriting officer, Marine Hull, and head of Marine, UK & Lloyd’s, AXA XL, said:

“Diego’s valuable seafaring and marine warranty surveying experience, coupled with his loss prevention guidance, will bolster our already strong UK Marine team, supporting our growth ambitions in the region and enhancing our risk management offering to clients. I’m delighted to welcome Diego to the team.”

Topics Carriers Excess Surplus Lloyd's AXA XL

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