Vantage has hired Andrew Lea as its new senior vice president of cyber liability, errors and omissions, media, and management professional liability insurance.
The firm said that Lea was joining from CNA Insurance, based in Chicago where he was head of commercial errors and omissions, cyber and media liability. According to Vantage, Lea has worked in a number of senior underwriting roles with commercial insurance carriers including Zurich Insurance, Swiss Re and AIG. It said that he also has prior broking experience at Marsh.
Alex Blanco, chief executive of Vantage, said in a statement: “We are very excited for Andy to join the Vantage team, particularly as we prepare to launch cyber and management professional liability products in the United States as key business expansion opportunities in 2022.”
He added: “Bringing onboard someone of Andy’s caliber and depth of risk insights will enable Vantage to effectively underwrite these risks for our client base. It will also facilitate our entry into the cyber insurance market at a time of unprecedented need for this protection.”
The hiring of Lea to Vantage comes after a few months in which the company has made repeated hires that seem to underly its ambitions for growth in 2022.
Back in February, Reinsurance News reported that the firm received a $200m capital injection from Carlyle Group and Hellman & Friedman. Vantage said at the time that the majority of the proceeds will be used to make the most of opportunities in U.S. primary business.
The injection of capital followed news a month earlier that stated that the firm had welcomed a slew of new arrivals to its ranks.
To start the new year, the specialty re/insurer announced it had hired Jay Opat as vice president for healthcare. Opat joined the firm from Aspen Insurance Group where he spent more than five years, having previously worked at insurer Zurich in the U.S. for more than 11 years.
Vantage also hired David Mancuso, who joined from ProSight Specialty Insurance, and Dimitry Ridlovsky as technical lead.
David Robinson joined the re/insurer as a data scientist, and Diamond Binns, previously of RenaissanceRe, joined as an underwriting assistant.
Additionally, Noemi Davila joined Vantage as a claims analyst, and Rich Hartman, formerly of Ambridge Partners, Brit, Arch and Zurich, came onboard as vice president for underwriting, construction.
