QBE North America launches specialty casualty business

Firm snags four Berkshire Hathaway vets to lead new unit

QBE North America launches specialty casualty business

Insurance News

By Ryan Smith

QBE North America has announced the launch of a specialty casualty business as part of its strategy to invest in areas where it can offer distinct advantages to business customers.

“With QBE Specialty Casualty, we see a clear opportunity to build a long-term franchise that is grounded in expert underwriting with a data-driven approach to meet the unique needs of customers,” said Tom Fitzgerald, president of specialty and commercial insurance at QBE North America. “It will allow us to deepen our relationships with our limited and preferred network of brokers while we further improve the balance and synergies in our diversified business portfolio.”

QBE Specialty Casualty’s offering will include admitted and non-admitted primary, lead umbrella and excess liability products and target a wide range of business segments across a diverse spectrum of industries, the company said.

To launch the unit, QBE has hired a team led by four senior executives with demonstrated expertise in specialty casualty.

Appointed to newly created posts to lead the business are:

  • Karen London, president of Specialty Casualty
  • Mike Foley, chief underwriting officer of Specialty Casualty
  • Morgan Wichmann, head of casualty, non-construction
  • Craig Freid, head of casualty, construction

Prior to joining QBE, all four held leadership positions at Berkshire Hathaway.

“Our team has an unmatched reputation, and we are confident they will build the industry’s leading specialty casualty business,” Fitzgerald said. “We’re excited to have them on board and look forward to their contributions to QBE North America.”

“QBE has state-of-the-art systems and tools to support the specialty casualty products and services,” London said. “We are thrilled to bring our expertise to QBE leveraging capabilities, building a team and platform from the ground up to deliver customized risk solutions for customers.”

Related Stories

Keep up with the latest news and events

Join our mailing list, it’s free!