Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance Co. is diving into the construction insurance market in Australia, and it has hired veterans of Munich Re, AIG, QBE and Allianz to help run it.

BHSI is now offering construction property, casualty, projected professional indemnity and project cargo insurance for construction classes in Australia. It is also pairing coverage with in-house construction claims and engineering expertise.

The new BHSI team that will shepherd growth of the construction insurance business includes:

Construction Manager Cameron Holmes, a 15-year veteran of construction and engineering insurance with experience at companies including IAG and Munich Re.

• Rob McNab, underwriting manager, construction, who has more than 10 years experience in construction/engineering underwriting and brokerage. He developed his knowledge base with stints at companies including CGU, Willis Australasia and QBE Insurance.
• Mark Thompson, senior underwriter, casualty, is a 15-year insurance industry veteran, and he focused on the construction industry for the last 5. Thompson was most recently senior casualty underwriter at AIG in Sydney, though he also has experience from tenures at Marsh Australia and Aon UK.
• Patrick Whyte, risk engineering manager, has 25 years of experience focused on loss control and risk engineering. Before BHSI, he was senior risk engineer at Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty in Sydney. He also brings with him experience from the Australian Consulting Network Pty Ltd and Marsh.
• David Cook, claims manager, joins BHSI from Suncorp Group, where he handled such roles over the last 7 years including global, corporate, and major loss claims in Brisbane and Melbourne.

All will be based in Sydney except for McNab, who will work from BHSI’s Melbourne office.

Australia and the Asia/Pacific region are a big focus of growth for BHSI. In June, for example, the specialty insurer entered the healthcare underwriting market in Austalia. It also opened for business in Aukland, New Zealand and hired AIG veterans to lead both operations.

Source: BHSI