W. R. Berkley Corporation has made three simultaneous senior appointments across its reinsurance operations, all effective immediately. The moves see a long-serving Berkley Re America president step into a broader group role, a successor named from within, and a new board-level position created for a veteran of two decades with the firm.
Daniel R. Westcott has been appointed executive vice president of W. R. Berkley Corporation, with responsibility for oversight of the group's assumed reinsurance businesses. Westcott joined Berkley Re America as president in 2019 and brings nearly 30 years of property casualty reinsurance market experience to the expanded role.
Robert R. Coyne, Jr. succeeds Westcott as president of Berkley Re America. Coyne joined Berkley in 2006 and became senior vice president of Berkley Re America in 2010. He has more than 30 years of experience in the property casualty reinsurance business.
Robert C. Hewitt has been named chairman of Berkley Re. Hewitt joined Berkley in 2002 as senior vice president for risk management and was named executive vice president of the company in 2016. He has been with the group for 24 years - and previously served as acting president of Berkley Re America in 2019, during the transition period before Westcott's own original appointment to that role.
W. Robert Berkley, Jr., chairman, chief executive officer and president of W. R. Berkley Corporation, said Westcott's experience and knowledge of the organisation would serve the group well as he takes oversight of its assumed reinsurance businesses. He said Coyne's expertise in developing reinsurance solutions positioned him to lead Berkley Re America, and described all three appointments as the product of sustained internal leadership development.
The reshuffle comes roughly seven weeks after the passing of William R. Berkley, the group's founder, who died on June 9, 2026, at age 80 after building the company from its 1967 founding into a Fortune 500 commercial insurer. Berkley stepped down as CEO on October 31, 2015, handing the role to his son, W. Robert Berkley, Jr., but remained the company's executive chairman until his death; the board appointed W. Robert Berkley, Jr. as chairman immediately following his father's passing. Neither this announcement nor the earlier one names his father's death as a driver of the Berkley Re changes, and the two events should not be assumed to be directly connected - but the timing places this reshuffle inside a period of broader leadership transition at the parent company. The specific scope and authority of the newly created Berkley Re chairman role has not been publicly detailed beyond Hewitt's appointment to it.
The changes come as the group's reinsurance and monoline excess segment reported a combined ratio of 79.3% in the second quarter of 2026, a sharp improvement from 87.4% in the same period a year earlier. Reinsurance segment gross premiums written fell, however, to US$341.2 million from US$370.9 million, with reinsurance casualty net premiums written declining to US$162.9 million from US$188.9 million. Neither the group's results release nor this announcement frames the reshuffle as a response to that premium decline, and Berkley's own comments characterise the moves as long-planned leadership progression rather than a reaction to the segment's softer top line.
Berkley Re operates five global platforms: Berkley Re America, Berkley Re UK, Berkley Re Australia, Berkley Re Asia and Berkley Re Solutions. The group's reinsurance operations cover property and casualty risks across North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific on both a treaty and facultative basis.
W. R. Berkley Corporation's insurance company subsidiaries hold an A+ (Superior) financial strength rating from AM Best.
