QBE Re appoints Global Product Heads in London and New York
QBE Re has appointed Salvatore (Sal) Sama as Global Product Head for Casualty, Jane Farren as Global Head of Financial Professional Lines (FinPro) and Derek Durst as Global Head of Cyber.
Sal, based in New York, has more than 20 years of financial services experience and spent 10 years at Swiss Re prior to joining QBE.
Jane has worked at QBE Re in New York for close to three years with other industry experience including Aspen Insurance Group and Swiss Re.
Derek started his career at QBE Re in London in 2012 and worked with Aon for five years previously.
They are expected to take up the positions in January 2024.
Chris Killourhy, Managing Director, QBE Re said: “We are pleased to welcome Sal, Jane and Derek to these positions. These senior hires are reflective of our global ambition and desire to deploy capacity consistently around the world. In so doing, we can deliver sustainable growth and build long-term partnerships with our customers.”
“The appointments evidence our commitment to underwriting discipline and offer our brokers and cedants a consistent proposition. Filling these senior roles internally is testament to the quality of underwriting talent we benefit from across the business.”
“Our aim is to create a QBE Re that is easy to do business with and creates a more consistent experience for our clients globally as our teams work collaboratively across all of our offices.”
The announcement follows other senior hires made at QBE Re in 2023 including Andrew Guarnori, Ashish (Ash) Ahluwalia and Mark Jackaman to Head of Underwriting Oversight, Global Head of Performance & Portfolio Analytics and General Manager, London, respectively.
The new Global Product Heads are responsible for underwriting quality, governance, and oversight for each product around the world. They will work closely with Mark Jackaman, who was appointed General Manager, London, in September 2023.
QBE Re has offices in Bermuda, Brussels, Dubai, Dublin, London and New York.
Authored by QBE Re
About QBE
QBE European Operations is part of QBE Insurance Group, one of the world’s leading international insurers and reinsurers and Standard & Poor’s A+ rated. Listed on the Australian Securities Exchange, QBE’s gross written premium for the year ended 31 December 2018 was US$13.7 billion.
As a business insurance specialist, QBE European Operations offers a range of insurance products from the standard suite of property, casualty and motor to the specialist financial lines, marine and energy. All are tailored to the individual needs of our small, medium and large client base.
We understand the crucial role that effective risk management plays in all organisations and work hard to understand our clients’ businesses so that we offer insurance solutions that meet their needs – from complex programmes to simpler e-trading solutions – and support them in minimising their risk exposures. Our expert risk management and rehabilitation practitioners focus on helping clients improve their risk management so that they may benefit from a reduction in claims frequency and costs.