Global re/insurance broker Howden has announced new appointments to its Capital, Advisory & Placement’s Surety team, naming Chris Coomans Head of Natural Resources, James Royal Head of Mining and Marc Underwood Trade Finance Lead.
All the new appointments are based within Howden’s Surety division. The broker has a long history of providing Surety solutions with £20bn+ bonds placed around the world.
A senior corporate banker with over 30 years’ experience, Coomans has been appointed to lead the Natural Resources Desk, which was created in order to support natural resources’ clients bank guarantee and SBLC requirements globally.
Howden spokesperson said: “A core part of our strategy is to establish sector specialism. With the growing demands on the capital needed to support energy transition plans, we are pleased to announce the hiring of Chris Coomans to establish a dedicated Natural Resources Desk within our Surety team which will be focused on supporting our clients’ global financing and capital requirements.”
James Souter, Managing Director – Surety, commented: “I am delighted that Chris has joined our growing Surety team. Chris brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise from the banking industry, most recently as Head of Resources, Energy and Infrastructure at ANZ Europe. This will deliver significant benefits to our clients, markets and team.”
Also joining the Surety team is Royal, a Mining Engineer with seven years of experience in underground mining operations. He has worked in all facets of some of the most technically challenging and successful operations in the southern coalfields of New South Wales, Australia.
He joined Howden from South Western Railway, where he has served for the last eight years. Royal has now returned to his mining roots by joining Howden as the Head of Mining Desk and is the operational expertise in the team.
Finally, Underwood joined Howden’s Surety team as Trade Finance Lead. In his new role, he works with clients globally to structure and execute guarantee and SBLC facilities working with both banks and sureties.
Underwood is a trade finance specialist with over ten years’ experience in corporate banking with Barclays and NatWest. Prior to joining Howden, he applied his trade finance expertise in a corporate environment establishing Lightsource bp’s global trade finance function.
Souter said: “I am pleased to announce the hiring of Marc Underwood and James Royal to further support our clients within the Natural Resources sector. Marc brings trade finance and renewable sector expertise from his roles at Natwest, Barclays and most recently Lightsource bp.
“James is a mining engineer and has worked for BHP and South32. He brings a unique offering to our mining clients, allowing us to have an engineering-led approach. This further industry specialist expertise will help support the Surety Natural Resources desk.”
Drew Wardrope, Divisional CEO, Howden CAP, M&A and Real Estate, stated: “By bringing together Marc Underwood, James Royal and Chris Coomans, we are leveraging deep industry knowledge to create a truly unique surety proposition for our Natural Resources clients.”
