Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance Company (BHSI) has opened its doors in New Zealand and is ready for business.
The company confirmed yesterday it received its licence from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand and is underwriting property and casualty insurance through its new office in Auckland.
"We are pleased to bring the financially strong capacity and customer-centric underwriting and claims handling of BHSI to New Zealand," said
Peter Eastwood, Global President and Chief Executive Officer of BHSI.
Country Manager
Cameron McLisky, who was most recently
Regional Financial Lines Manager at AIG Asia Pacific, said: "I am delighted to introduce BHSI to the New Zealand marketplace. We have assembled an excellent team and look forward to collaborating with our brokers and insureds to provide stable, flexible solutions along with the quality service that is a hallmark of BHSI operations everywhere."
The BHSI appointments in New Zealand also include:
Doug Thomson - Property and Energy Manager. Doug was most recently Head of
Vero Special Risks. Before that, he was Head of Property and Energy Manager for AIG in New Zealand.
Anthony Posa - Casualty Manager. Anthony comes to BHSI with nearly two decades of experience, most recently as Auckland Region Commercial Lines Manager and Corporate Trading Team Manager at
Lumley Insurance. He was previously at Ace and RSA.
Megan Howe - Claims Manager. Megan has 20 years of experience as a lawyer, most recently at Robin Simon LLP in London, where she specialized in defense, coverage and regulatory work for insurers and professionals.
Other highly experienced members of BHSI's underwriting team include Karen Poching and Ian Marshall, both Senior Underwriters, Financial Lines, and Nikki Quain, Senior Underwriter, Property. Jessica Jefferies is Underwriting Assistant.
In addition, BHSI can offer Marine Cargo in New Zealand, with Australia-based
Mark Dixon also having New Zealand responsibility.
Earlier this month
Berkshire Hathaway announced it was taking an approximate 3.7% stake in IAG via a $500 million placement through an initial 10-year, 20% quota share agreement across IAG’s consolidated insurance business.
