People Moves: Beazley Realigns to Bolster N.A. Commercial Property; Fusion Hires M&A VP From AXA XL; Promotions at Distinguished Programs

Beazley strengthens its North American Commercial Property offering

Beazley said it restructured its large commercial property division along with its Canadian and E&S property teams to create a single North American commercial property team.

Four new regional leaders have been appointed – three internal as well as Robert Sadlier, who joins the firm as Central Regional leader, based in Chicago. Sadlier joins Beazley from Ironshore, where he was an E&S Property Underwriting Officer. The internal appointments are:

• Ashley Irwin becomes Northeast Regional leader, based in New York. Ashley joined Beazley in 2019 as an underwriter on the U.S. large commercial property team with 15 years of underwriting and broking experience.
• Reid Jaffe, Southeast Regional leader, based in Atlanta. Reid joined Beazley in 2007. He is an E&S property underwriter and was the focus group leader for the Southeast E&S team.
• Tim Carlin, Western Regional leader, based in San Francisco. Tim has been with Beazley since 2016 as an E&S property underwriter and then became the focus group leader for E&S property for Western region in 2021.

Each regional hub is supported by a locally based underwriting team.

Mike Cooper has been appointed to the new role of Property product leader to drive a consistent underwriting approach to products and business strategy in North America. All teams will report to Matt Westhoff, head of North American commercial property.

“These changes are the final piece in our property strategy to create a single commercial property team in North America. Most importantly, it simplifies our distribution and helps us to support our brokers where they are located, offering easier access, and consistent service, irrespective of the channel, based on a unified risk appetite and underwriting approach,” said Richard Montminy, group head of property risks at Beazley.

Fusion Americas bolsters M&A capability with senior appointment

Fusion Specialty said it hired Richard Liu, who joins Fusion Americas as partner following the businesses’ recent launch. Liu assumes his role with immediately and will report to Brian Hayes, managing partner.

Liu will play an integral role in cementing the MGA’s global capability and presence in North America. He brings legal, broking as well as underwriting experience to Fusion Americas, having primarily worked within the M&A market. He joins from AXA XL where he held the role of vice president, M&A. Prior to this, Liu was vice president at Atlantic Global Risk having previously worked at KPMG within its M&A Tax group.

Liu said: “Fusion Specialty’s success in the Asia Pacific is well known and we are primed to replicate and build upon the business’s reputation in North America. There is a large appetite for the tech-enabled solutions Fusion Americas can offer to the traditionally overlooked and underserved small to midmarket sector.”

Distinguished Programs Promotes 2 to Regional VP of Sales Roles

Distinguished Programs, a national insurance program manager, announced the promotion of both Donna Percival and Erick Schmitt to the newly created position of regional VP of sales. Percival will oversee sales initiatives in the West & Midwest U.S., while Schmitt will manage the Central and Eastern territories.

Percival joined Distinguished as a regional sales executive in 2020. Previously, she served as a business development manager at Westchester, a Chubb Company, where she grew the company’s broker relationships in Northern California and the Pacific Northwest.

Schmitt also joined Distinguished in 2020. Prior to this, he worked at Markel Specialty as a senior sales manager, where he worked directly with retail agents to place workers compensation accounts.

Topics Mergers & Acquisitions Commercial Lines Business Insurance Property AXA XL