AXA XL has appointed Grace Xu (pictured) as a senior underwriter within its alternative risk solutions (ARS) team, based in Los Angeles, California, the company confirmed on LinkedIn. The hire adds captive reinsurance fronting experience to a unit the company launched in January 2026 as demand for alternative risk structures grows.
Xu joins from Starr Insurance, where she spent just over three years. Her most recent position was underwriter for captive reinsurance fronting in Los Angeles from July 2025 to July 2026. In that capacity, she assessed risks across multiple industries to determine reinsurance structures and worked with captive managers, brokers, and actuaries on alternative risk transfer solutions.
Before that, Xu served as an associate underwriter at Starr Insurance in Chicago from June 2024 to July 2025, focusing on captive reinsurance fronting and risk management. She joined Starr in June 2023 as an intern with its global operations technology team, where she gained experience in customer relationship management and professional indemnity insurance.
In her new role, Xu will develop solutions for clients with complex risks through single-parent captives and risk financing structures that combine reinsurance and risk transfer strategies.
Xu holds a bachelor of science degree in computer science from the University of Michigan.
The appointment follows AXA XL's launch of a dedicated ARS team for the Americas in January 2026, led by Sylvain Bouteillé, its chief underwriting officer for specialty in the Americas. The unit centralises the company's alternative risk transfer capabilities across the US, Canada, and Bermuda. Its initial focus spans captive solutions, structured risk solutions and group captives.
AXA XL is the property, casualty and specialty risk division of AXA. Its ARS practice serves clients requiring non-traditional risk financing, including captive insurance programmes and structured reinsurance arrangements.
The hire comes as corporate appetite for captive structures accelerates. More than 7,000 captives are now active worldwide and collectively write in excess of US$80 billion in premiums, according to a Global Insurance Law Connect report drawing on data from 20 jurisdictions. In the US, the number of domestic captives grew to 3,466 in 2024 from 3,365 the prior year based on the latest figures from AM Best.
