The Bermuda branch of global multi-line reinsurer Qatar Re has taken up residence in new office space at “Overbay”, on Pitts Bay Road.

Founded in 2009, Doha-based Qatar Re, underwrites all major property, speciality and casualty lines, including aviation, marine, satellite, energy, engineering, property, credit and surety, motor and agriculture.

With a second branch in Zurich, Switzerland, the company supports its clients with expertise and strong capital base which is uncorrelated with the global capital markets.

The Bermuda branch, Qatar Reinsurance Company LLC, is led by Luke Roden, branch manager and head of Property North America. Rob Lee Womack serves as underwritng manager North American Property.

Luke Roden is a senior underwriter and underwriting manager for property classes specialising in large portfolios of short tail business. Having started in the market in 1992, he has gained extensive experience with short tail treaty lines, high-level aviation and marine XL. He has also worked in the UK, US and Ireland reinsurance markets.

Rob Lee Womack, Jr began his professional career almost 30 years ago as a primary insurance underwriter in personal, commercial and auto business classes. After moving to reinsurance Rob Lee underwrote professional liability, long-tail casualty lines and property risk and catastrophe. For the past 20 years his focus has been on leading and building teams of underwriters for short-tail property lines, while assisting in the development and build out of a number of Bermuda start-ups.

A company statement said: “The underwriters bring more than 50 years of reinsurance experience to the market. They are tasked with building Qatar Re’s property lines business in North America including Catastrophe, Risk XL, Aggregate XL, Pro-rata and Stop Loss.

“Through its Bermuda branch, Qatar Re o?ers a capacity of up to $30 million per Catastrophe/Aggregate programme and $7.5 million for Per Risk/Pro-Rata via the broker market.”

Qatar Re began underwriting with a clean sheet of North American exposure in 2012. The company has built a sizeable portfolio for their Bermuda branch.

Qatar Re is rated “A/Stable” by Standard & Poor’s and “A (Excellent)” by AM Best.