Tokio Marine Highland (TMH) has appointed Matt LoPiccolo (pictured) to the newly created role of chief growth officer, effective immediately.
LoPiccolo will lead corporate development and M&A activity, distribution strategy and business development, and will also oversee new product pipeline development and corporate marketing. He will report to TMH CEO Steve Prymas and will be based in New York City.
LoPiccolo joins TMH from Octave Partners, the acquisition division of Octave Specialty Group, formerly Ambac Financial Group before its 2025 rebrand into a dedicated specialty MGA platform. The rebrand followed Ambac's sale of its legacy financial guarantee business - the bond-insurance activity that had defined the company for two decades - and marked its transformation from a monoline financial guarantor into a specialty MGA acquirer and incubator, trading under the new ticker OSG from November 20, 2025. There, he worked with specialty insurance MGA startups and portfolio companies on growth strategy, acquisitions, business planning and operational development.
Octave has been an active acquirer over the past year, completing a $250 million purchase of accident and health MGA ArmadaCorp Capital and expanding capacity across its Lloyd's syndicates, giving LoPiccolo recent, direct experience of the kind of deal-making environment TMH is now looking to enter.
Earlier in his career, LoPiccolo held senior leadership positions at AXIS Capital and American International Group (AIG), after starting his career at Marsh & McLennan.
LoPiccolo said the move reflected the reputation TMH has built in the specialty market.
"Tokio Marine Highland has built a strong reputation for specialty insurance expertise, innovation, and trusted relationships," he said. "I'm excited to join the TMH team and to help drive the company's next chapter of strategic growth."
Prymas said the appointment reflected a deliberate investment in the underwriting agency's growth plans.
"The creation of this role is a deliberate investment in TMH's expansion agenda, and I'm confident that Matt's leadership will strengthen our market presence, accelerate innovation, and support the next phase of our growth strategy," he said.
Founded in 1962 and headquartered in Chicago with operating centers in Texas, California and Florida, TMH is a wholly owned subsidiary of Tokio Marine Kiln, one of the largest carriers in the Lloyd's of London market. The agency underwrites specialty lines including private flood, fine art, specialty property, real estate investment and lender-placed insurance through its TMH2O flood program, and includes claims subsidiary Precise Adjustments.
TMH's flood business sits inside one of the more actively contested corners of US specialty insurance. Private flood insurance premiums grew nearly 43% between 2016 and 2024, from $3.29 billion to $4.7 billion, as insurers used more granular property-level data to compete with the federally backed National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).
That competition has intensified as the NFIP has struggled both financially, carrying roughly $22.5 billion in debt to the US Treasury, and operationally; Congressional Research Service data shows the program's authorization has now been extended 34 times on a short-term basis since fiscal year 2017, with the current extension running only to September 30, 2026.
Private insurers including Neptune Flood have separately proposed a "private-first" reform model under which homeowners would need to seek quotes from private carriers before qualifying for NFIP coverage.
If a shift of that kind gains traction, it would widen the opening for underwriting agencies that, like TMH, already have flood platforms built out.
The creation of a standalone chief growth officer role, combining M&A sourcing, distribution and product development under one executive, mirrors a broader pattern across the US specialty and MGA sector, where firms have been adding purpose-built growth and corporate development leadership rather than folding those functions into existing operating roles.
LoPiccolo's move from an active acquirer to an underwriting agency still building out its own M&A function suggests TMH intends to be a more visible buyer going forward, rather than relying solely on organic growth within its established private flood, fine art and specialty property lines, at a moment when flood in particular looks increasingly attractive to private capital.
