People Moves: MGA DUAL North America Appoints 3 Industry Veterans for Leadership Roles; AXA XL Insurance Names Duke as Head of Pricing, Mid-Market Team

MGA DUAL North America Appoints 3 Industry Veterans for Leadership Roles

DUAL North America Inc., a subsidiary of Howden Group, has appointed three industry veterans to leadership and key underwriting roles through promotion and new hires. Jim Jinhong was promoted to head of Capacity and Product Development, D.J. Postles joined as executive vice president of Underwriting for DUAL’s NationsBuilders Insurance Services Inc. (NBIS), and John Kopach joined as executive vice president of Excess Liability.

In his role as DUAL head of Capacity and Product Development, Jinhong’s responsibilities include leading a strategic and balanced deployment of partner capacity across the enterprise and developing new products in support of an ever-changing marketplace. Prior, he served as executive vice president of Underwriting & Business Development at NBIS, a member of the DUAL North America Inc. group of companies, where he drove program diversification through organic growth over the past 20 years.

As EVP of Underwriting, Postles will be leading the underwriting team at NBIS. Postles has 22 years of underwriting and leadership experience, with large and mid-size carriers in the North American Insurance marketplace, including Chubb, Swiss Re, and Hiscox. He brings with him corporate insurance and association leadership experience along with technical property and casualty underwriting skills. Working strategically with brokers over his career, he has developed a strong relationship focused on profitable growth, efficiency, innovation, and customer success. Postles is based in Atlanta, Ga., reporting to Bill Tepe, president of NBIS.

“Jim has led NBIS through an impressive period of growth and diversity, building creative coverage lines and driving underwriting profit for our market partners,” said Tepe at NBIS. “D.J. has a dynamic background of insurance leadership roles, he will have the opportunity to lead a diverse team of underwriters and drive best-in- class customer service to our clients.”

Kopach will work directly with Mike Towell, president of Excess Liability, to help drive the expansion of DUAL’s excess liability product in the East and Southeast. He joins the team with more than 20 years of experience, most recently serving as the senior vice president of Excess Casualty, Southeast Region for AXA XL. Kopach’s background also includes serving as senior vice president and vice president for Swiss Re Financial Corporate Solutions and Everest National Insurance Co. Kopach is based in Atlanta, Ga.

About DUAL North America and NationsBuilders Insurance Services Inc.

DUAL North America Inc. is part of the DUAL Group, the specialist underwriting arm of Howden Group Holdings. DUAL North America is a leading specialty program administrator that offers property, casualty, and financial lines products through several specialized operating subsidiaries.

One of those subsidiaries, NationsBuilders Insurance Services Inc. (NBIS), provides insurance and risk management solutions for crane, rigging, specialized transportation, concrete pumping and equipment dealer/rental operations in the United States.

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AXA XL Insurance Names Duke as Head of Pricing, Mid-Market Team

AXA XL Insurance in the Americas continued the build out of its U.S. Mid-Market team with the addition of Matthew Duke as head of Pricing, U.S. Middle Market Analytics.

Duke joins AXA XL from Xceedance, where he served as senior vice president and chief actuary, head of Global Actuarial Services. Prior to his most recent position, he served as head of Pricing and Growth Analytics and interim head of Risk for Blackboard Insurance. His 20-year career also includes various pricing and reserving positions with Guy Carpenter, Arch Insurance and Travelers.

He holds credentials as an Associate of the Casualty Actuarial Society (ACAS), Associate in Reinsurance (ARe) and Member of the American Academy of Actuaries (MAAA). Duke received his undergraduate degree in Applied Math & Statistics from Stony Brook University, and earned his MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s The Wharton School.

AXA XL’s Mid-Market team is actively building out AXA XL’s target mid-market client offering in the U.S., leveraging its strength in underwriting, data, claims handling and global capabilities. The team plans to officially launch its underwriting operations in June 2023. At launch, AXA XL’s U.S. Mid-Market team will offer workers compensation, commercial auto, general liability, property and umbrella to private equity firms.

“With the addition of Matthew, we continue to build out a strong team of industry talent and move another step closer to officially launching our underwriting operation,” commented Matt Waters, head of U.S. Middle Market.

“Matt’s career experience, especially his work establishing actuarial pricing infrastructure and portfolio monitoring tools to support underwriters, is particularly relevant to our situation and focus on efficiency. In his new role with us, Matt is tasked with developing our US Middle Market pricing strategy and infrastructure,” Waters added.

Topics Commercial Lines Business Insurance Leadership Insurance Wholesale AXA XL