Rod Fox, former CEO of reinsurance broker Benfield‘s U.S. arm, has been appointed CEO of Clarendon, the U.S. speciality insurance subsidiary of German reinsurer Hannover Re.
Fox replaces Steven Najjar, who filled the position for the past 16 months. Najjar took over as CEO following the departure of Detlef Steiner, who left about three months before the end of his contract for personal reasons.
Gabriele Handrick, spokeswoman for Hannover Re, says Fox’s leadership skills and experience made him the best person for the job.
“Rod has developed deep insight into Clarendon’s business over more than 15 years,” says Handrick. “He is a dynamic leader and his long-term experience in the industry, contact with managing general agents and a proven record in building business made him the best candidate,” she says.
Najjar has been appointed CEO of Hannover Finance. Handrick says he saw Clarendon through a period of transition. “Steven’s work during these 16 months has been great,” she says. “He created a very good base for Clarendon’s future and now Rod will continue the work. We have started the process to turn Clarendon into a more profitable company in the next few years.”
Clarendon’s business model has been overhauled since 2002. It was downgraded to A- from A by AM Best in November 2003 because of its heavy use of reinsurance. Clarendon stopped writing programme business in 2005.
Wilhelm Zeller, CEO of Hannover Re, said at Monte Carlo in September last year that Clarendon would focus on speciality lines of business and retain a large percentage of the risks it underwrites, instead of relying heavily on proportional reinsurance.
Handrick says these changes are taking shape. “Clarendon is mainly focusing on building niche business now,” she says. Some recent examples of business the company has written are coverages for self-owned businesses, pets and Masonic temples.
Fox has already started work at Clarendon. David Bogg, spokesman for Benfield, says that Fox left the company days ago to take on his new role. Bogg says Fox was successful at Benfield. He was CEO of Benfield’s U.S. operations until March last year, when he took leave of absence from Benfield for personal reasons.
For the past six months he has been working at Benfield Corporate Risk, the broker’s new corporate risk insurance brokerage arm. He was not in a management position, so Benfield is not searching for a direct replacement.