Canopius has announced several appointments for Asia-Pacific, in line with its regional expansion goals, all based in Singapore.
The global specialty re/insurer has named Mathew Gundersen as head of operations for Asia-Pac & MENA, and Paul Hackett as head of marine, energy, and engineering for Asia-Pac & MENA.
Gundersen relocated to Singapore in 2009 to join Aviva, before becoming senior operations manager at Catlin Singapore in 2011. From 2014, Mathew was XL Catlin’s operations lead for Asia-Pacific and head of shared services, with responsibility for 200 staff in Kuala Lumpur. He then worked as head of operations at Berkshire Hathaway Singapore for two years before joining Canopius.
Hackett worked at Royal & Sun Alliance in London before moving to Singapore as marine manager, Asia & Middle East in 2006. He returned to London in 2011, but moved to Singapore again after 18 months to join Catlin, where he was head of Marine, APAC and Middle East, for three years. In 2016, he became a director and head of marine at Aspen Singapore, responsible for hull, cargo, liabilities, and FAS. Hackett is a member of the General Insurance Association of Singapore’s marine committee and a member of IUMI’s facts and figures committee.
In addition, two new recruits will join Canopius in the coming months. Dale Taylor will become property underwriting leader in December, while Matt Bird will arrive in January as crisis management underwriter for the region. Taylor will join from Tokio Marine Kiln, while Bird switches from QBE.
“As we build on the very sound base we have already achieved, we are strengthening our regional infrastructure in keeping with our underwriting expansion and ambitions,” said Mark Newman, Canopius’ CEO for Asia-Pacific, Middle East, and North Africa.
“It is exciting to see that our growth plans and entrepreneurial spirit are attracting high-calibre talent. Our new colleagues share our desire to focus on professional specialty underwriting that supports our clients, providing an enhanced proposition that will make the most of the many opportunities that exist in Asia-Pacific.”
