Markel has moved sustainable energy and power underwriter Rob Jones (pictured) from its London office to Singapore, reinforcing its specialty energy platform across Asia-Pacific.
Jones reports to Aminah Sulaiman, Markel’s senior underwriter for energy in the region. His remit covers building out Markel’s renewables and power book across Asia-Pacific, managing broker and client relationships, and widening the coverage solutions the company offers in the market.
He brings more than a decade of energy insurance experience to the role. Before moving into underwriting, Jones spent close to six years in Markel International’s London claims team handling complex energy losses – experience Markel says is directly relevant to how he now approaches pricing, risk structuring, and managing exposures across the energy transition.
Sucheng Chang, Markel’s managing director for Asia-Pacific, pointed to the pace of regional energy development as the driver behind the move.
“Asia-Pacific is driving the global shift to clean energy at an unprecedented pace. Rapid electrification across the region, fuelled by surging power demand from industrial growth and expanding digital infrastructure, is accelerating the need for specialist insurance expertise to support this transformation. Rob’s appointment is a direct response to that opportunity,” Chang said.
The scale of that opportunity is hard to dispute. Asia accounted for 74.2% of all new global renewable capacity additions in 2025, adding 513.3 GW to reach a total of 2,891 GW of installed renewable capacity, according to IRENA’s Renewable Capacity Statistics 2026.
Separately, BloombergNEF’s Energy Transition Investment Trends 2026 put total global energy transition investment at a record US$2.3 trillion in 2025 – up 8% on the prior year – with Asia-Pacific accounting for 47% of that total.
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Against that backdrop, the insurance market serving the sector is evolving. Capacity in Asia has stabilised, particularly for well-structured projects with proven technologies and experienced sponsors. But underwriters are sharpening their criteria as climate volatility, supply chain disruption, and emerging technologies complicate project risk profiles.
According to Willis’s Renewable Energy Market Review 2026, the region’s insurance market has shifted from a transactional function to one that is increasingly tied to project bankability, lender confidence, and capital access.
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Sam Liu, head of renewable energy in Asia at Willis, outlined what separates projects that secure strong terms from those that don’t. “The projects that achieve the strongest outcomes in 2026 will be those that can demonstrate transparent data, robust technical design, credible delay assumptions, and clear alignment between procurement, contracts, and risk transfer,” Liu said.
Battery energy storage systems and offshore wind continue to attract the closest underwriting scrutiny, with natural catastrophe exposure and sponsor capability both factors in how insurers assess these risks.
For brokers advising clients in the renewables space, the message from the market is consistent: the quality of technical documentation, site selection rationale, and risk management strategy is now doing material work in determining coverage terms – not just price.
Jones’s relocation adds a claims-experienced underwriter to a market where that kind of technical depth is increasingly what separates one insurer’s offer from another’s.
