Najjar Takes Helm at Clarendon Insurance Group

On Sept. 30, Dr. Detlef Steiner stepped down as president and chief executive officer of Hannover Re’s largest subsidiary, Clarendon Insurance Group in New York.

The new president and CEO of Clarendon is Steven B. Najjar. Prior to this appointment, Najjar served as executive vice president, chief operating officer and general counsel at Hannover Life Re America. He had joined there in May 1998 after serving as the company’s outside counsel for six years.

The company said that Steiner has left Clarendon to pursue other opportunities. “Detlef has done a great job restructuring Clarendon and has given the company a new concept. After having accomplished this he has now left Clarendon to pursue other opportunities,” the company stated.

Also, effective mid-October, Juergen Lang will become chief program officer of Clarendon, New York and will be in charge of Clarendon’s program management including Clarendon’s ceded reinsurance.

In other news, on Aug. 25, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services revised its outlook on Clarendon National Insurance Co. and two of its subsidiaries–Clarendon America Insurance Co. and Redland Insurance Co.–to stable from negative. At the same time, Standard & Poor’s affirmed its ‘A+’ counterparty credit and financial strength ratings on these three companies (collectively referred to as Clarendon). In addition, Standard & Poor’s raised its counterparty credit and financial strength ratings on Insurance Corp. of Hannover (ICH) to ‘A+’ from ‘BBB+’. The outlook on ICH is stable, according to S&P.