Sills start-up Bowhead continues team build ahead of 1 November launch

Stephen Sills’s start-up Bowhead Specialty Underwriters is close to adding excess casualty underwriters to its recently hired professional liability team which is set for a 1 November start, but is expected to wait for further improvement in healthcare market conditions before launching in that segment.

According to sources, Bowhead is on schedule to begin underwriting excess D&O on an E&S basis at the start of next month on the AM Best A rated paper of American Family, initially with an MGA structure and a capitalized reinsurer sitting behind the US insurer.

It will also begin filing its admitted form for approval as it looks to eventually build out its offering in all 50 states.

With an excess casualty launch slated once the start-up has assembled its underwriting team for that segment, there is expected to be a longer wait before it makes the move into writing US healthcare business.

Sources said that rate adequacy in healthcare – with the exception of long-term care facilities – is not yet at the level where Bowhead will go ahead with the third vertical in its business plan. Conditions will be assessed going into the start of next year.

As previously reported, former Cap Specialty and Darwin CEO Sills has secured funding from private equity firm Gallatin Point as well as BlackRock, with the start-up’s management and American Family also investing in the agency and reinsurance vehicle.

Recruitment picks up

The Insurer understands that the most recent additions to Bowhead’s management team include Chris Butler as head of claims, and Susanne Mazzone as head of regulatory and operations.

Butler was most recently a managing director at Markel. Mazzone is also a former Markel executive, but was most recently vice president of compliance and regulatory at Axa XL.

The executives add to a growing team at the start-up that includes CUO David Newman, the former Allied World executive who had worked with Sills at Darwin. Sills sold Darwin to Allied World – now part of Fairfax Financial – in 2008 for $550mn in cash.

Bowhead has signed up three key underwriting executives to cover the professional liability side of its business plan.

The new venture also turned to Markel to hire New York-based Dan Gamble as head of professional liability. The executive was most recently managing director for executive and professional liability at the US insurer and was previously an executive vice president at Arch.

He is joined by Steven Kane as head of financial institutions underwriting, with the executive joining from Sompo International, where he was most recently senior vice president, based in New York.

And Bret Hilgart has been hired as head of commercial D&O, also from Markel, where he was most recently managing director for executive liability based in Chicago, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Other management hires include former Axis and Argo executive Jim Tees as CFO and another former Allied World executive, Maria Morrill, as chief actuary.

Morrill was most recently senior vice president at Allied World, and previously held positions at Willis Re and Folksamerica Reinsurance Co, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Meanwhile, former CNA general counsel Jon Kantor takes the same role at Bowhead.

Low excess layers

In an interview with The Insurer last month, Sills said that rather than just targeting short-term opportunities, he and his colleagues are looking at a long-term sustainable play to build a portfolio of quality risks.

That will see it initially look to put down $10mn or $15mn lines on low excess layers rather than making a capacity play in mid or high excess layers.

“There will be primary opportunities and there will be low level excess opportunities. It’s about proving ourselves to the market and seeing ourselves more and more on primary opportunities so we have a long-term sustainable business.

“American Family is one of the pre-eminent insurance operations in the country so there’s no reason why risk managers, brokers and wholesalers wouldn’t want a company of this quality on their placements,” he explained.

Sills said that frequently participating in lower layers will allow it to eventually get an opportunity at primary layers “if the primary carrier stumbles”.