The CEO of global business insurer XL Group is to be honoured in New York.

Mike McGavick, the head of XL Group, will be given the St John’s University School of Risk Management’s 2014 Insurance Leader of the Year award at a gala dinner in New York next week.

The dinner will be co-chaired by industry veteran Brian Duperreault, head of Bermuda-based Hamilton Insurance Group and Michael O’Halleran, executive chairman of Aon Benfield and executive vice president of Aon plc.

Mr Duperreault, who also serves as chairman of the School of Risk Management (SRM), said: “The Insurance Leader of the Year accolade is traditionally awarded to an industry leader for distinguished achievement over a long career, or for special achievement in the year of recognition.”

“Mike has had an extraordinary career worthy of recognition in its own right.

“He is a leader of immense competence, and he has most ably guided XL Group during his tenure there. Mike also has a passion for public and philanthropic service that is well known and esteemed — both within our industry and by larger segments of our society.”

It was announced earlier this month that Mr McGavick’s XL had made a $4 billion-plus offer to buy up Bermuda-based rival Catlin — which would create a company with capital of $17 billion and around $10 billion of net premium, based on the value of the two firms at the end of 2013.

XL was founded in Bermuda in the 1980s and still maintains a major presence on the Island although it now based in Ireland.

Stephen Catlin, who founded the firm that bears his name in London in the 1980s, has a strong presence at Lloyd’s of London — an area seen as crucial to XL’s ambition to expand its lines of business.

The award selection committee was chaired by Ellen Thrower, professor emerita and retired executive director, St John’s University’s SRM and also included George Bernstein of the Bernstein Law Firm, based in Washington, DC, Robert Hartwig, PhD, president of the Insurance Information Institute, Joseph Mauriello, retired deputy chairman and COO of KPMG, Michael Morrissey, president and CEO of the International Insurance Society, Patrick Shouvlin, retired partner of PwC and Peter Walker, director of New York’s McKinsey & Company.

The Insurance Leader of the Year Award, presented every year since 1995, recognises leadership in the worldwide insurance and financial services industry.

Last year’s recipient was Robert Benmosche, former president and CEO of American International Group.

The SRM was founded in 1901 as the Insurance Society of New York and over the years evolved into The College of Insurance.

It merged with St John’s University in 2001 to become a school of The Peter J Tobin College of Business.

The school awards undergraduate, MBA and MS degrees in insurance, risk management and actuarial science and through its Center for Professional Education, SRM also provides training and consulting services to the industry, governments and regulators worldwide.