People Moves: MGA Rokstone Names Heaton From Nexus as Head of D&O; RSA Hires CNA Hardy’s Westwood for Cyber Underwriting Team

This edition of International People Moves details appointments at the UK-based MGA Rokstone and RSA Insurance.

A summary of these new hires follows here.

MGA Rokstone Names Heaton as Head of D&O

Rokstone, the London-based international speciality re/insurance MGA, part of the Aventum Group, has announced the appointment of Jimmy Heaton as head of D&O.

The appointment comes just weeks after Rokstone announced the launch of a new professional indemnity (PI) binder as it broadens its speciality re/insurance portfolio.

Heaton will lead the D&O team when he joins Rokstone after serving his notice at Nexus Underwriting where he was latterly managing director of Management Liability. Once tipped as a rising star in the industry, he joins with more than a decade of D&O underwriting experience, beginning his career at AXA before moving to W/R/B Underwriting in 2016 and then Nexus Underwriting in 2019.

Rokstone is focusing on complex SME and mid-market D&O risks that fall between simple SME/automated products and large/coinsurance placements – an area of the market which remains underserviced across the UK and EEA.

“We’re delighted Jimmy has chosen to join Rokstone to establish and lead our D&O team. Complex SME and mid-market D&O remains relatively underserviced across the UK and EEA, and is often an area of frustration amongst placing brokers; these risks essentially fall through the gap between online systems and London market corporate/subscription placements. It is challenging areas of niche specialty lines like these that are Rokstone’s sweet spot – it is what we excel at,” commented Ian Anson, managing director of Rokstone.

With 14 offices in the UK, Europe, U.S., Asia, Africa and the Middle East, Rokstone is a leading specialist MGA serving the needs of international re/insurance brokers in specialty lines business. It currently underwrites more than US$1.5 billion GWP annually in several specialty lines including property, power generation, marine, aviation, cedent led facultative, agriculture, construction & engineering, and liability.

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RSA Hires Westwood From CNA Hardy for Cyber Underwriting Team

RSA Insurance announced that Henry Westwood has been appointed as senior specialist underwriter in its UK Specialty Lines cyber business. Westwood will join the business on May 15 from CNA Hardy and will be responsible for leading the standalone cyber underwriting practice in the UK.

Westwood started his career at Towergate Insurance as an assistant underwriter, before joining Hiscox in 2015. He spent more than five years at Hiscox, before joining CNA Hardy in 2020 as a technology & cyber risks underwriter, later becoming a senior underwriter in April 2022.

In addition, Carol Nguyen, a senior technology underwriter at Intact, will begin a six-month secondment with the team in London on Feb. 15.

Nguyen started her career at Liberty Mutual Canada in Toronto as an intermediate underwriting operations associate, commercial lines & construction. In 2018, she joined Intact as a specialty solutions underwriter, before becoming a technology underwriter in 2019.

Westwood and Nguyen will join existing team members Nicky Parker (portfolio manager for cyber), Mathias Jeppesen (cyber underwriter) and Nigel Pearson, group cyber underwriting director at RSA Insurance.

“The demand for cyber insurance continues to grow in response to an ever-increasing frequency of ransomware and data breach incidents. New legislation is also being enacted that addresses cyber security and data privacy in many jurisdictions that will only increase the potential liabilities for organisations,” commented Pearson. “Having a comprehensive product that addresses these issues is very much part of our Specialty Lines strategy.”

Topics Cyber Underwriting Insurance Wholesale