European Legacy acquirer DARAG has announced key senior appointments to further broaden out its capabilities.
The company has appointed Alastair Lauder as Group Chief Actuary who will be based in London.
He most recently served as Syndicate Actuary at Arch Managing Agency (formerly Barbican), where he led the reserving team and oversaw the capital modelling and pricing for Syndicate 1955.
In addition, the legacy acquirer has appointed Ciaran Russell as Senior Actuary in North America.
Russell is based in Bermuda and most recently worked as an actuary at ILS Investment Management, where he had direct experience with legacy transactions.
DARAG has also appointed Vivek Bhandari as Head of Data to assist with the growing importance of harnessing and streamlining data for the pricing and reserving process as well as to provide a wealth of valuable management information to monitor and improve portfolio performance.
Bhandari was most recently Data Warehouse Consultant at Siemens Financial Services and has deep data warehouse experience.
DARAG also appointed Matt Watson as Group Head of IT.
He was the former Group Head of IT at Armour Risk Management and brings both technical and strategic experience to his new role, including the management and delivery of IT infrastructure projects, cyber security and post-deal integration of systems.
Lastly, DARAG has appointed Alastair Whitfield as Group Head of Investments to help manage the group’s asset portfolios, which are primarily managed by Goldman Sachs Asset Management.
Whitfield joins from RBC Wealth Management, where he was Head of Fixed Income, UK.
Prior to that, Whitfield worked at Chubb Insurance as Portfolio Manager, co-managing the company’s multi-billion dollar international asset base.
Whitfield will help ensure DARAG has a structured and well considered approach to asset allocation with a view to optimising risk and capital adjusted yields. The aim is to enhance the Group’s competitiveness and further control the risk of the Group’s growing asset base.
Tom Booth, Group CEO of DARAG, commented on the new appointments: “As DARAG continues to expand globally, these senior hires reflect the successful growth and maturity of the Group as well as its ambition and innovation.
“These highly experienced and skilled staff will lead the continued development of our actuarial, data, IT and investment functions as we move beyond the initial scale up phase of the business.
“This new talent will serve to enhance our competitiveness as well as cement our reputation as a well-resourced global legacy player with an enviable blend of industry experience and data led innovation.
“DARAG now benefits from a significant balance sheet, ready access to growth capital and the ability to transact across key territories.
“We expect our full platform build out to be complete by year end, making the Group one of only a few legacy players able to provide the entire suite of solutions across Europe, North America and the UK,” he continued.
“DARAG has built up a substantial, well diversified and medium tail portfolio since its recapitalisation three years ago, reinforced by strong risk metrics, underwriting discipline and expert claims management. Our future growth will be built upon those same foundations.
“It is a testament to what the business has achieved in recent years, its controlled ambition and outlook in an attractive segment of the insurance market, that we have attracted such high calibre senior personnel to help continue the growth of DARAG into a highly respected and competitive mid-market legacy player.”
