Financial services and Lloyd’s capital adviser Hampden Group today announces the appointment of Chris Sharp as active underwriter of its Lloyd’s syndicate, Verto 2689, managed by Asta Managing Agency, subject to regulatory approval.
Sharp was formerly chief underwriting officer at Parhelion Capital, and director of underwriting and head of property reinsurance at Dale Underwriting Partners for the seven years before that. He will use this experience to lead Verto as it continues its expansion into a multi-partner consortia business.
The syndicate has taken significant steps to fully execute its follow-syndicate strategy with the addition of new consortia business for the 2022 year of account. Sharp is key to the continued underwriting oversight and consortia partner management for the business going forward. He will be joined by Leah Rose as general counsel who was formerly at Parhelion Capital, having spent more than eight years as head of legal at Brit Insurance.
Verto Syndicate 2689 provides capacity to three Lloyd’s consortia arrangements for 2022, including its existing relationship with Chord Re, a four class consortia with Mosaic and an Arch consortia, providing a diversified range of underwriting across quality Lloyd’s platforms.
Verto Syndicate 2689 expects to build its premium over the next three years in order to develop efficient, flexible, and enduring partnerships enabling capital to access a diverse range of insurance risks in a cost-efficient manner.
Verto’s underwriting and business plan will remain unchanged for 2022 as it continues to service its clients and broker partners alike.
Stephen Harris, CEO of Hampden Group, said: “Chris’s experience and knowledge brings a new level of expert underwriting analysis to the active underwriter role at Verto. We are very pleased to be able to deploy his diverse skillset to further improve Verto’s ability to select and support other leading lines in executing Verto’s follow strategy.”
Sharp added: “I am excited by this opportunity to build a business with Hampden and utilise my skills to provide capital with a diverse and profitable follow syndicate operation.”