Market heavyweights to head up new Lloyd's syndicate

Aquiline Capital Partners, a New York based private equity firm, and Whittington Group have joined with Swiss Re and private equity fund Lehman Brothers Co-Investment Partners, to announce the launch of Lloyd's based underwriting agency Ark Syndicate Management.

The company has gained FSA approval and that of the Lloyd's franchise board, and will begin writing policies from 1 April.

Jeffrey Greenberg, the managing principal of Aquiline, will become chairman of the holding company, Bermuda-based Group Ark Insurance Holdings. Greenberg was the chief executive of Marsh & McLennan, who was forced to resign after the Spitzer inquiry.

Ark will underwrite a diversified, balanced book of insurance and reinsurance, in marine, energy, property and casualty classes. The company has a stamp capacity of £114m for the 2007 year of account.

Ian Beaton will serve as chief executive. Beaton was formerly head of insurance at Aspen Insurance. Prior to this, he was co-head of McKinsey & Company's European property and casualty insurance practice.

David Foreman, Ark's chief underwriting officer, has more than 30 years' experience at Lloyd's and was chief underwriting officer of Wellington Syndicate 2020 until his retirement from the company in April 2006.

Nick Bonnar will be Ark's director of underwriting. He has almost 20 years' underwriting and broking experience and was most recently head of specialty lines at Aspen. In addition, William Malloy, former president of Marsh Inc, will serve as non-executive chairman of the company.

Commenting on the launch of Ark, Foreman said: “With the backing of highly regarded investors and an experienced management and underwriting team, Ark will offer disciplined and innovative underwriting products. We intend to establish a market-leading syndicate by building a diversified and balanced book of business across a broad range of insurance and reinsurance classes.”