People Moves: Fusion Specialty Appoints Harwood for APAC M&A Team; Specialty MGA Nirvana Hires García-Beltrán to Grow European Cyber SME Portfolio

This edition of International People Moves details appointments at the managing general agents Fusion Specialty and Nirvana.

A summary of these new hires follows here.

Fusion Specialty Appoints Harwood for M&A in Asia Pacific

Fusion Specialty, a Sydney-based MGA platform within Pop Group Holdings (POP), announced the appointment of Steven Harwood as managing partner, M&A, Fusion Asia Pacific (APAC). In his new role, Harwood will spearhead the Fusion M&A team in the APAC region, overseeing operations from New Zealand to India.

A seasoned professional with more than 26 years of expertise in transactional liability risks, Harwood brings a wealth of experience to Fusion, the company said.

As an ex-Royal Navy officer, London-based reinsurance broker and English-qualified lawyer, Harwood joins Fusion having previously established and led two transactional liability teams in APAC where he was responsible for all transactional liability products including warranty and indemnity (W&I), tax, and contingent liabilities.

During that time, he underwrote the first tax indemnity policy placed in the Japanese market and led a very large litigation buy-out tower relating to a Japanese litigation risk. He also worked on a number of contingent liability risks, including one relating to the liquidation of the Singapore arm of a very high-profile US company.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Harwood joins Fusion from Volante Transaction Service where he was managing director, Asia Pacific. Prior to that role, he was head of Transactional Liability, Asia and Middle East, for Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance. He has also held key positions at Ironshore Group’s Pembroke Syndicate at Lloyd’s Japan and in the M&A practice of Herbert Smith Freehills’ Tokyo office.

His experience as an underwriter in APAC spans not only warranty and indemnity (W&I) but also tax indemnity – largely indirect tax matters involving India, Singapore, UAE, Mauritius and Netherlands but also Japanese, Australian and Korean tax risks. He is also a market authority on contingent liability risks, including litigation buy-out risks, and is the go-to underwriter for Asian brokers expanding into this area.

About Fusion Specialty and POP Holdings

Established in 2018, Fusion Specialty is the leading specialist underwriting agency (MGA) focused on providing innovative, tech-driven and sustainable insurance solutions, primarily to the small and medium-sized business market. Backed by large global insurance partners, Fusion has rapidly expanded globally with offices in Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, the UK, Germany, Spain and the USA.

POP Group Holdings is an owner of/investor in M&A and specialist, data & technology-enabled insurance businesses.

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Specialty MGA Nirvana Hires García-Beltrán to Grow European Cyber SME Portfolio

Nirvana, the London-based media, tech and cyber managing general agent (MGA), announced it has appointed Andrea García-Beltrán to the newly created post of head of Cyber Europe.

García-Beltrán, a cyber insurance veteran, joins in March, and will be responsible for leading and building a new cyber insurance product, focusing on small-to-medium-sized (SME) businesses in Europe, which is expected to launch later in 2024.

García–Beltrán was head of cyber underwriting at RSA until 2022. She then moved to head of Finex Latam at Willis Towers Watson, before setting up her own cyber consultancy business in 2023. García-Beltran worked for more than a decade at Aon and was previously chair of the Cyber Underwriting Insurance Committee at the International Underwriting Association.

Based in Barcelona, she will report to Rob Jones, Nirvana chairman and head of Media, Tech and Cyber.

“Andrea is one of the foremost cyber insurance underwriters in the London market, and we are thrilled that she has chosen to join our growing team at Nirvana,” said Jones. “We see tremendous growth opportunities in the cyber market, and Andrea’s vast experience will be invaluable as Nirvana seeks to grow our share of this market.”

Nirvana Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder Kabir Chanrai added: “We are very excited to be building our new European cyber insurance product with Andrea at the helm, bringing a wealth of product experience with her.”

In March 2023, Nirvana announced it had appointed industry veteran Thomas M. Mannsdorfer as part of its leadership team to build out a European underwriting business. Based in Barcelona, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) specialist Mannsdorfer is leading a pan-European team to develop warranty and indemnity (W&I) insurance to SMEs in Europe.

Nirvana was founded by Rob Jones in 2017 as a trading division within the Castel Underwriting Agencies platform.

Topics Mergers & Acquisitions Cyber Europe Insurance Wholesale