Chord Re, a new managing general agency (MGA) underwriting start-up, has been launched by Stefan Long, formerly Head of Aspen Re London, and will begin underwriting with the backing of Neon’s syndicate capacity.
Chord Re has been set up as a joint-venture between its management team, Neon Underwriting Limited and insurance focused venture investor Beat Capital, all of which have a long-term goal of transitioning Chord Re into a fully integrated reinsurance carrier.
Stefan Long, CEO of Chord Re, explained, “We intend to build a market-leading reinsurance business, differentiated by product expertise, with a balanced portfolio that combines quantitative analysis with experienced judgement to provide clients with innovative tailored solutions. We believe that the knowledge, experience and relationships of the team at Chord Re, aligned to the support of Neon, creates a compelling proposition and we look forward to offering an attractive new source of capacity to the market.”
Chord Re, which launched on 6th November, will structure and lead programmes in specialist classes of reinsurance business, initially underwriting solely on behalf of Neon Syndicate 2468.
Chord Re will start quoting for business that incepts from January 1st 2018 and has received the requisite approvals to act as a Lloyd’s Coverholder.
For the first year, Chord Re will focus on underwriting specialty-focused reinsurance lines, including Marine and Marine Composite, Property, Engineering, Aviation & Space, Terror, Nuclear and Cyber.
As well as Stefan Long as CEO, the Chord Re team consists of Tom Meyer as Chief Underwriting Officer, and Chris Schmidt, Ed Wheatley and Marc Brendle. Two Assistant Underwriters will also be hired and will work closely with Neon’s Chief Underwriting Officer and Active Underwriter Darren Lednor across its portfolio.
John Cavanagh, CEO of reinsurance broker Willis Re, will also join as Non-Executive Chairman upon his retirement from the firm.
Martin Reith, Neon Group Chief Executive, commented on the launch, “We are excited about the launch of Chord Re and its world-class underwriting talent. Recent industry losses have resulted in some market dislocation and the team will differentiate itself by offering substantial expertise, leadership and creativity to structure solutions for clients.
“Neon’s momentum continues to build as our platform attracts yet more of the market’s sharpest entrepreneurial minds. Chord Re provides further demonstration of our ambitions to build a high quality underwriting portfolio.”
Tom Milligan, Chairman of Beat Capital, added, “We are delighted to partner with Neon again in the creation of another exciting business, following the launch of Tarian in 2016.”
