Torus, the global specialty insurer, has appointed Alex Maza to oversee its US Management Liability platform, effective immediately. Reporting to CUO of Global Specialty Dermot O'Donohoe, he will focus on building Torus' offering for publicly traded and private entities in the United States. He is based in New Jersey.

Torus Management Liability Group will initially provide Directors & Officers, Employment Practices, Fiduciary and Fidelity Liability products. Plans are in place to offer Professional Indemnity as well as private equity and financial institution coverage on a selective basis as part of a growing portfolio of professional and commercial insurance.

Mr. Maza brings 16 years of management liability experience to Torus, eleven of which were spent at Zurich North American, where he was most recently an SVP within its Strategic Risk Solutions Group. Previously he had undertaken a number of underwriting roles within both Zurich North American and AIG.

He holds an MBA from Pace University, New York and an Economics degree from Binghamton University, also in New York.

Mr. O'Donohoe said, "Alex's appointment is an integral part of Torus' strategic aim to deliver our specialty products across all geographies. We are reinforcing our commitment to providing clients with a top quality, professional lines operation and expanding our global capacity in management liability."

"The professional liability market continues to be very challenging from a rate perspective for many insurers," Mr. Maza said, "but Torus' capacity, loss control features and underwriting expertise, along with its focus on using a high degree of analytics are key differentiators that will benefit brokers and clients, and I'm excited to develop customized Torus products and solutions to meet their needs."