African reinsurer, One Re, has announced Nicholas Davenport as appointed Board Chairman with immediate effect.
Davenport is successor to Gilles Bonvarlet who is stepping down from the Board after providing leadership from the firm’s early days of expansion out of the start-up phase.
The newly appointed chairman has nearly 30 years of Willis experience, where he served as a board member for group wholesale and retail operating companies and a number of overseas offices.
During his Willis tenure he acted as director of Africa operations for ten years.
More recently he was a Chubb Europe board member and is currently Chairman of a Lloyd’s managing agent and Board member of a French Insurance Company – he will manage these additional responsibilities alongside his One Re role.
One Re CEO, Andrew Lewis, said; “following a successful 2017 renewal season we are delighted to have Nicholas at the helm to steer us through our next phase of growth which we anticipate will be significant in the next few years.
“Nicholas has an unparalleled knowledge of Africa and many of the friendships that he has forged in the continent over the years have remained strong to this day.”
Davenport is said to have a particular affinity for Francophone and Anglophone Africa, after having travelled extensively across the continent in his early career days as reinsurance broker.
He paid tribute to his predecessor, Gilles Bonvarlet, for laying the governance foundation and added that he was excited “about the prospect of working with the One Re team as I can see enormous potential for a new entrant African specialist reinsurer in the coming years”.
