Former Reinsurance Execs Launch Underwriting Mgmt Firm
The former top executive of RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. – who resigned during an SEC probe into his company’s accounting practices – has joined forces with another reinsurance executive to launch a new underwriting management company based in Greenwich, Conn.
The venture, New Asset Class Management, brings together former RenaissanceRe CEO James Stanard and Rod Fox, former CEO of Praetorian, to create a wholly owned subsidiary of F&S Ventures, a privately held investment company.
The new venture will focus on managing and acquiring large portfolios of insurance risk, managing risk portfolios for carriers, and providing advice and risk analysis to insurers, hedge funds, private equity firms and other investors interested in insurance risks.
The amount of the company’s starting capital or projected first-year earnings was not disclosed. Headquartered in Greenwich, Conn., New Asset Class Management also expects to have offices in New York and Bermuda.
Stanard, who founded RenaissanceRe in 1993, stepped down as chairman and CEO of that firm in November 2005, after the SEC began an investigation into transactions between RenaissanceRe and Inter-Ocean Reinsurance Company Ltd. That investigation eventually yielded a settlement in which RenaissanceRe agreed to pay $15 million.
Stanard will be chairman of the new venture; Fox will serve as its CEO.
Prior to RenaissanceRe, Stanard was with USF&G and F&G Re.
Fox, who was CEO of the $2 billion specialty insurer Praetorian before it was sold to QBE, was previously with Benfield Inc. and E.W. Blanch Co.