Greenlight Capital Re Names Former SAC Re Executive, Burton, as New CEO
Greenlight Capital Re tapped a veteran Bermuda reinsurance executive as its new chief executive officer.
Simon Burton is slated to become CEO of the hedge fund/specialist reinsurer as of July 1, 2017 and will also serve on the board of directors. He’ll succeed Leonard Goldberg, who had been serving as interim CEO, but will remain part of Greenlight Capital Re’s board of directors.
Goldberg has been standing in for Barton Hedges, who stepped down at the end of March not long after A.M. Best slapped the struggling reinsurer with credit ratings downgrades. At the time, Greenlight did not disclose why Hedges stepped down, though board chairman David Einhorn praised Hedges in a prepared statement “for his efforts in implementing GLRE’s strategy and developing a talented, experienced team.”
Einhorn said Burton was hired after a “comprehensive search process, and as “the clear choice to bring Greenlight Re to its next phase of growth.”
Burton had been CEO of SAC Re since its creation until Hamilton Insurance Group and Two Sigma bought it in 2013 from Steven Cohen, the billionaire founder of SAC Capital Advisors LP, after Cohen’s hedge fund reached a $1.8 billion deal with federal prosecutors to end a criminal investigation into insider trading. SAC Re is now Hamilton Re. While at SAC Re, Burton helped build the company’s global reinsurance portfolio.
Before SAC Re, Burton also held a variety of leadership roles at Lancashire Group, including deputy CEO and CEO for its Bermuda subsidiary. As well, Burton had a 10-year tenure at Financial Solutions International, an underwriting division of ACE Limited (now Chubb), where he eventually became president.
Source: Greenlight Capital Re
This article first appeared in Insurance Journal’s sister publication, Carrier Management.