Australian brokers who place business with AXA XL have a new name to learn, though he won't be working from Sydney.
From 1 October, Dr Thomas Götting is chief client and distribution officer for AXA XL's APAC and Europe business unit. He will set client and distribution strategy across Europe, Asia and Australia, working with the local client and distribution teams in each market. He will be based in Cologne, where he has led the German distribution operation for the past several years.
He has two bosses. He reports to Xavier Veyry, chief executive of APAC and Europe, and to Manuel Meier, AXA XL's chief client officer. He also keeps his German role for now, staying on as head of distribution Germany on an interim basis until a replacement is appointed.
The Australian business is a significant part of what he is taking on. Australia is the third-largest market by gross written premium in the APAC and Europe unit, as Insurance Business reported when Catherine Carlyon was named AXA XL's Australia country manager in 2021.
Day-to-day broker relationships in Australia sit with a local distribution team led by Stephen Nguyen, who was appointed head of distribution for Australia in 2022. That team also works closely with AXA XL's Brooklyn Underwriting brand.
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Veyry says he wants profitable growth from companies building digital and energy infrastructure, and selective expansion of the specialty and mid-market books.
"We see opportunities for profitable growth across Europe, Asia and Australia, particularly by supporting businesses investing in digital and energy infrastructure, while selectively expanding our specialty and mid-market portfolios," he said.
In Australia, "digital infrastructure" mostly means data centres. CBRE expects the country's live data centre capacity to rise from roughly 1.3–1.4GW in 2025 to about 1.8GW within three years, and it warns that demand is likely to outstrip supply.
Global brokers are already building capacity for these risks: Aon's dedicated data centre programme now offers US$5 billion. That makes these placements both large and competitive, and the carriers that win them will be the ones brokers see as committed to the sector.
Read next: Why data centres are becoming one of brokers' biggest new growth markets
Meier set out two priorities for Götting. The first is closer work with AXA's general insurance companies, so that AXA XL's specialist underwriting reaches businesses that deal with other parts of the group. The second is selling more than cover.
"Beyond risk transfer, we are committed to evolving our proposition through risk advisory and prevention services, helping clients anticipate, mitigate and prevent losses," Meier said.
Australian brokers will already recognise that second approach. AXA XL's local cyber team says it offers complimentary pre-loss services to all primary cyber policyholders through its in-house Cyber Risk Consulting capability, as it explained in this year's 5-Star Cyber report. Götting's job is to make that kind of offer standard across the region rather than limited to a few product lines.
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A lawyer who came up through credit insurance
Götting has close to three decades in commercial insurance, more than 20 of them in senior client and distribution roles. He is a fully qualified lawyer with a German law doctorate and an international MBA.
He joined XL Catlin as country manager for Germany in 2018, the year AXA completed its takeover of the group. He has been deputy country manager and head of distribution for Germany at AXA XL since 2021. Before that he held senior leadership roles at the trade credit insurers Coface and Atradius.
It's the latest in a series of senior changes Veyry has made to the APAC and Europe unit. The run includes Adias Gerbaud's move into the chief underwriting officer role and a new head of claims for Australia.
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