Cyber program manager Resilience has hired Kevin McGowan from Beazley and Mike Shannon from Axa XL as it builds out its underwriting team and geographical footprint.
McGowan and Shannon have been named vice president and assistant vice president respectively, with both operating as cyber underwriters for the firm, which is the program manager for Intact Insurance Specialty Solutions.
McGowan was most recently at Beazley in Chicago, where he was co-chair of the carrier’s global cyber and tech large risk group, setting the underwriting strategy for the carrier’s cyber and errors and omissions (E&O) business.
Resilience said the executive was responsible for underwriting and managing the company’s most complex cyber risk placements in the US.
Shannon joins from Axa XL in Atlanta, where he was a senior underwriter in the insurer’s cyber and technology E&O practice. In his role he oversaw the company’s cyber middle market business across the southeast region of the US.
Before joining Axa XL, the executive was a cyber and professional liability underwriter with AIG.
Commenting on the hires, Resilience CUO CJ Pruzinsky said: “We continue to attract strong insurance talent who recognise the need for a broader approach to writing cyber.
“It has to go beyond the tried and true that has worked for years for most lines of coverage – and in Kevin McGowan and Mike Shannon we’ve got two professionals who embrace the combination of security with insurance that we’re bringing to the market.”
McGowan will be based in Chicago, with Shannon based in the firm’s Atlanta office.
As previously reported, Resilience was launched by the management team behind Arceo.ai last November as a program manager combining cyber security and cyber insurance targeting middle-market risks.
Led by Vishaal “V8” Hariprasad as CEO and Raj Shah as chairman, Resilience has assembled a management line-up of insurance industry executives, including former Aspen Insurance CEO, Zurich Insurance and Willis North America executive Mario Vitale as president.
It is initially writing on a non-admitted basis on the A+ AM Best rated paper of Intact Insurance Specialty Solutions.
Expansive Canadian insurer Intact has also invested in Resilience through its Intact Ventures unit, alongside existing Arceo.ai backers including Lightspeed Venture Partners, Founders Fund, CRV and UL Ventures, as well as notable angel investors including John Thompson, chairman of Microsoft.
In an interview with The Insurer following the official launch of Resilience, Vitale said the program manager will combine risk engineering and superior risk prevention with a strong value proposition on risk transfer that has parallels with the FM Global model.
