AXA XL has announced that Chris McKeown, the former CEO of its ILS management platform New Ocean Capital Management, has stepped down from his role as Vice Chairman to pursue other interests.
McKeown has more than 30 years of re/insurance and alternative capital management experience, and was the founding CEO of New Ocean in 2013.
He was instrumental in building out the platform of the then XL majority-owned asset management affiliate, attracting strategic investment and engaging third party investors.
Most recently, McKeown has been an advisor to AXA XL’s alternative capital business and has continued to serve as a Director of certain New Ocean managed funds.
AXA XL completed its acquisition of all third party ownership interests in New Ocean in November 2018, transforming New Ocean into a wholly owned subsidiary within its alternative capital business.
Led by Daniel Brookman, Head of Alternative Capital at AXA XL, the alternative capital team have achieved a growth in assets under management from $465 million as of December 2017 to more than $1 billion as of December 2018.
“As we expand AXA XL’s presence in the alternative capital space, we will continue to leverage our internal resources to create additional catastrophe and non-catastrophe portfolios for third party investors in co-participation with the underwriting franchises of AXA XL as well as AXA Group. We wish to thank Chris and his team for their efforts to date,” said Brookman.
Charles Cooper, AXA XL’s Chief Executive for Reinsurance, also commented: “We are excited about New Ocean’s future as an aligned asset manager, and thank Chris for his efforts in the initial phase of New Ocean’s development.”
AXA XL said that New Ocean provided it with the opportunity to develop an ILS fund manager platform by partnering with private equity fund manager Stone Point Capital and later with Japanese conglomerate Mitsui & Co.
To date, New Ocean has managed investments in property catastrophe, specialty and whole account lines of business.
