Senior management appointments announced

Senior management appointments announced

The announcement came as Zurich Insurance Company’s Global Corporate division celebrates its first anniversary in the region.

August 17, 2010 1:38 by Rasha Reslan

Dubai, 17 August 2010 – The Global Corporate division of Zurich Insurance Company Ltd (“ZIC”) in the Middle East has celebrated its first anniversary following its launch into the regional market in June 2009.

Over the past twelve months ZIC has focused on building its Global Corporate offer in a number of core markets across the GCC. It has introduced an array of specialty products and solutions to large corporate customers and their local insurers to support them in countering complex insurance risks in the regional market. Since Global Corporate began operating in the region, it has built its business to service a range of customers across the marine, energy, property, casualty and construction sectors, issuing over 200 policies in just twelve months.

Saad Mered, CEO of Zurich Middle East, has spearheaded ZIC’s expansion plans, growing the team in the Gulf to over thirty dedicated professionals. He said: “The Middle East is a strategic market for us across all our product lines. Recognising the strong growth potential in the region, we felt that it was extremely important for us to assist our customers in their local markets and develop our expertise by building a team of regionally based risk engineers and underwriters with access to market leading capacity.”

He confirmed a number of additional senior appointments within ZIC’s Global Corporate division which include:

Glenn Doan who has been appointed to manage the Risk Engineering team in the Middle East. Based in Bahrain and the UAE, Glenn will be responsible for providing a comprehensive range of risk management services to support ZIC‘s regional insurance partners. Glenn joins from Zurich Financial Services in Australia and brings extensive international experience in property and casualty risk evaluation for a broad range of diverse industries.

Hassan Kaissi who has been appointed as Head of Customer & Distribution Management . Hassan will also be based in both Bahrain and the UAE and will lead Zurich’s relationship and business development efforts in the region. Hassan brings extensive regional experience from working within the insurance sector in Saudi and Lebanon.

ZIC has also increased the number of fully empowered industry specialists within its Global Corporate division including:

Daniel Morrison, Underwriting Manager for Marine: Daniel transferred to Middle East from Zurich’s marine operation in Australia, Associated Marine Insurers Agents, where he was Underwriting Manager covering Victoria and Tasmania. Daniel will be working with ZIC’s local insurance company partners and intermediaries to deliver their market leading proposition to companies with cargo, specie or fine art interests in the region.

Marline Nehme, Senior Casualty Underwriter: Marline has extensive regional knowledge and experience from working within the regional insurance market for a number of years. In her new role she will be delivering tailored casualty programmes across all major lines including public and product liability, recall and employer’s liability and will also be responsible for further developing the casualty strategy for the MENA region.

Tejal Bartlett, Underwriting Manager for Onshore Energy Property: Tejal brings over fifteen years of underwriting experience to the team. As part of the Zurich Global Energy team, she will be providing onshore property insurance programs for companies in the oil and gas, petrochemical, natural resources, mining and power generation industries.

Manik Kak, Senior Underwriter for Engineering Lines: Manik has more than seven years experience working within the industry and will be responsible for delivering insurance solutions for onshore construction projects and tailored engineering line products to brokers and insurance partners in the region.

Mered, said: “Our continued success in the region is largely due to our ability to respond to the needs of the market. Being closer to our customers allows us to service our brokers and local insurance partners more efficiently. We have also been able to bring an increasing level of sophistication to the market by leveraging our global capabilities, introducing consistent pricing and delivering high quality servicing.”

“The new team members are in place and already helping to drive business growth by bolstering our innovation efforts and strengthening our ability to deliver market leading propositions to our customers.”

He concluded: “The growth we have experienced within a challenging economic environment is encouraging and we are confident that we can continue to build on the successes we have experienced to date in the region .”