Ardonagh-owned broker strengthens financial products arm with new recruits

Ardonagh-owned broker Price Forbes & Partners has boosted its financial products team with three new recruits.

They are Suresh Ellawala as executive director for US financial products, Mark Warrilow as director for financial products and Chris Butler as business manager.

The team will be based in London and will focus on developing and growing Price Forbes financial products around the world.

James Masterton, chief executive at Price Forbes, said: “These appointments also underline our strategic vision of growing the business in core sectors by investing in talented market specialists to ensure we continue to provide the right cover for our clients no matter how challenging the market conditions.

“I am delighted to welcome Suresh, Mark and Chris to the team – their vast experience and extensive contacts across this challenging sector will quickly help our clients.”

It follows David Ross revealing his plan to double the size of Ardonagh in three years. 

International growth

Ellawala’s key focus will be on developing Price Forbes US produced business in addition to supporting international growth. He will report into Richard Peers, managing director of the non-marine US team.

He has specialised in US directors and officers (D&O) for the last five years, he has over 15 years’ experience across D&O, environmental product liability, warranty and insurance, tax, financial institutions and error & omissions. Most recently he was D&O and transactional liability line underwriter at Hiscox.

Prior to that he was product leader for D&O and securities insurance at QBE London, and head of a financial lines team at AIG London. But before joining insurance, he was a practising lawyer in a corporate regulatory and M&A practice at Lovells and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringe.

Tough market

Suresh Ellawala said that this “is an exciting time to be joining Price Forbes as there is a significant opportunity for a well-resourced and experienced independent broker to grow in this space”.

“We are in a very tough market with a real lack of carrier capacity; our clients really need brokers that have an in-depth understanding of the insurance sector, specific products, the loss environment and so can talk comprehensively about risk with both them and underwriters. Our team has these capabilities, and we are continuing to build on a great base,” he added.

“Price Forbes already has a significant book in this sector, with an existing focus on financial institutions; I look forward to strengthening that presence and driving diversification across all financial products with both financial and other commercial customers.

Warrilow has 40 years insurance experience in both broking and underwriting and joins from Markel where he was most recently chief underwriting officer – Singapore. He will be focused on financial fraud for both banking and commercial risks.