Jan 12, 2023

Reinsurance News Kettle, a deep-learning powered insurtech company, has announced a number of appointments as well as Amit Shah’s promotion to President of Kettle Limited. With over 15 years of industry experience Brian Espie joins Kettle as Chief Underwriting Officer. In his new role he will head up underwriting at the reinsurance MGA startup, which uses advanced deep learning to better protect people from the growing risks associated with climate change. Prior to Kettle, Espie served at Fidelis Insurance where he most recently held the position of Group Head of North American Reinsurance. Before Fidelis, he served in various underwriting and analytical roles for the Tokio Marine Group, including Tokio Millennium Re in Bermuda. Espie commented: “I am excited to be joining at a time when Kettle is well-positioned to address the growing challenges facing our industry. “Climate change has demonstrated the need for innovative products that provide immediate solutions to both insurers and reinsurers. The deeply talented team at Kettle have built a platform that will help bring these solutions to the market with flexibility and efficiency.” Shah has over twenty years of reinsurance experience, both in London and Bermuda. He joined Kettle from Ariel Re where he led the Specialty Business unit. Prior to Ariel Re, he was heading up the Structured/Alternative risk unit specialising in bespoke multi class reinsurance. He has held various underwriting and broking roles at Guy Carpenter, Argo Group and Swiss Re, having started his career at KPMG in London. Kettle has also recently added underwriting bench strength in the US by hiring Mike Ratelle from TigerRisk and Taimur Chaudhri from American Ag Insurance. Nathaniel Manning, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer, said: “We are very excited to have someone with Brian’s experience and stellar track record join the Kettle team. “He brings a great deal of strategic insight and industry knowledge to Kettle which will prove invaluable as we scale our new commercial parametric wildfire insurance and GRIL (Grid Rated Industry Loss) reinsurance products and expand into new perils in the future.” Commenting on the recent appointments, Shah said: “Kettle has had an exceptional 2022 year with developing new products and building capacity both in the insurance and reinsurance space. “We have been very fortunate in attracting the best talent in Brian, Mike and Taimur to the underwriting team, and this will allow us to accelerate growth into 2023.”