Hiscox has appointed Joanne Musselle as its new group chief underwriting officer.
Ms. Musselle currently is chief underwriting officer for Hiscox's retail operations, the group's largest division.
Ms. Musselle will step into the role at the end of the year following Richard Watson's retirement and will join the Hiscox Ltd board as an executive director in February 2020, subject to regulatory consent.
Ms. Musselle has been with Hiscox, the global specialist insurer headquartered in Bermuda, for 17 years, having joined the U.K. business in 2002 as technical underwriting manager for professions and specialty commercial lines. Since then, she has held a variety of roles including head of U.K. claims and chief underwriting officer for Hiscox U.K. and Ireland before taking on the newly-created position of chief underwriting officer for Hiscox's retail business in 2018.
Prior to Hiscox, Ms. Musselle spent almost 10 years working in a variety of actuarial, pricing, and reserving roles at AXA and Aviva in both the United Kingdom and Asian markets.
In her current role, Hiscox said, Ms. Musselle is responsible for all retail underwriting across the Hiscox Group, including Hiscox U.K., Hiscox Europe, Hiscox U.S.A., Hiscox Special Risks, and Hiscox Asia.
She sits on a number of subsidiary boards in the Hiscox Group, as well as being active underwriter for Syndicate 3624 and a Hiscox partner. In addition, Ms. Musselle is involved in industry initiatives, having been an ABI industry forum member since 2013 and serving as a workstream chair of the Chartered Insurance Institute's Insuring Women's Futures initiative since 2017.
Bronek Masojada, Hiscox Group's chief executive officer, said, "After a thorough search where we considered a number of strong internal and external candidates, I am pleased to appoint Joanne as our next group chief underwriting officer. Joanne's deep understanding of our business and experience of managing underwriting portfolios in our key markets will be critical for our next stage of growth. She has overseen strong, profitable growth in our retail casualty and property portfolios and has confidently led the business through a number of changes in course when market conditions have been tough. Joanne's commerciality, long-term view, and ability to challenge will make her a valuable member of our executive team."
Ms. Musselle added, "Profitable underwriting is the backbone of Hiscox and I could not be more delighted to serve the group in this broader role. Being part of the evolution of Hiscox over the last 17 years has given me many experiences and opportunities across the whole of our business and I am excited to be taking up this next challenge."
Victoria Spears
Victoria Prussen Spears is senior vice president of Meyerowitz Communications Inc., a law firm marketing communications consulting company. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and Brooklyn Law School, Ms. Spears was an attorney at a leading New York City law firm before joining Meyerowitz Communications. She may be contacted at [email protected].