As Ascot Bermuda celebrated its 10th anniversary recently, the new man at the helm of the company declared that the best is yet to come for the global specialty insurer and reinsurer.

Justin Keith succeeded Ian Thompson as president and chief executive of Ascot Bermuda in June.

Mr Thompson was appointed chief executive and director of Ascot Underwriting Ltd, Ascot Group’s managing agency for Syndicate 1414 at Lloyd’s in London, subject to regulatory approval.

According to the group’s financial condition report for year-end 2023, gross premiums written were $3.844 billion, with $1.776 billion (46 per cent) written by the UK segment, $1.041 billion (27 per cent) written by the Bermuda segment and $1.027 billion (27 per cent) written by the company’s US segment.

Ascot Group has launched a unified capital management platform here, Leadline Capital Partners, to support its expanded third-party capital business.

Mr Keith said: “We’ve got three core parts of our business here that all have opportunities to grow and become more relevant with our broking partners, with our clients.

“We have a great insurance team and we’ll continue to grow that, where it makes sense.

“On the reinsurance side, we’ve grown that along with demand and opportunity in the market and that’s an at-scale, really good book of business that we’ll continue to flex around market opportunity. We think there’s quite a bit of that coming up.

“And then the third-party capital space is big here in Bermuda, so no coincidence that we’ve decided to house that capability here.

Investing in our people and making sure that we’re giving them great career opportunities, is how we continue to build an at-scale, resilient insurance and reinsurance business.

“I think the next ten years will be as exciting, if not more exciting, than the prior ten years.”

Mr Thompson joined Ascot Bermuda in 2017, first as chief underwriting officer of Casualty and Specialty, and became president and chief executive in December 2020.

He said of the success: “The key thing we did was really time our run. So much of this is about when the right time to grow is.

“We were very fortunate that six or seven years ago, the market was with us and we were able to grow with it. I’m pretty proud of the way we’ve built it.

“The culture that we have within the office of Bermuda, which is terrific, that leads on to retention. People generally haven’t left, which is great.

“We do understand that in Bermuda you are really part of a community. It’s somewhat different to working in New York or London or somewhere similar. You know, your work and your home lives are intertwined.

“I think we’ve been very respectful in the way we’ve done that and built a great culture. It has been a fantastic journey and I’m sure one that will continue.”

He agrees that the dislocation in the market was a launching pad for Ascot. He said: “The book we have in Bermuda has been heavily casualty specialty, and that market was a little upside down in 2019. So, we did take advantage of that. We were able to provide solutions for our clients and our customers. The numbers worked and it gave us a really good platform to build from there.

“Sometimes you get lucky on these things. I don’t think we were lucky. We sat on our hands a little bit for a couple of years before that. So there’s an element of discipline involved.”

Mr Keith said: “We’ve assumed a lot of risk along the way and solved a lot of problems for a lot of different types of clients. And as a result of growing the business, we’ve been able to hire some great people. Bermuda’s been a really good home for this piece of the business.”

The Bermuda office employs some 75 staff, the majority of whom are Bermudian.

Mr Keith said: “It’s exciting to be able to hire a variety of Bermuda talent. We have senior down to the most junior levels and kind of everyone in between. That’s a big part of our identity and who we are.”

Mr Thompson added: “The third that are not Bermudian are people who have been here for ten or 20 years, and have PRC, or BOTC.

Mr Keith said he envisions adding staff in the year ahead across insurance, reinsurance, and ILS in areas including underwriting, actuarial, finance, accounting and claims.

The company will continue its intern programme and will also stay involved with the island’s charitable sector.

Mr Keith said: “The office is very connected to the island through lots of different things that we’re doing.

“We’ve got this internship programme that’s really ballooned. We’ve hired a couple full-time folks out of that. We had 11 participants last year and the year prior.

“We do a lot with some of the local charities, and so all of those things are super important to me. They always have been.

“I’ve been here 12 years, so personally I’ve really invested in the island, and I want to see all of those things continue. The connectivity to Bermuda and the overall community is really important to me.”

He added: “In terms of the vision going forward, I think about it in terms of we have this great foundation, we’ll accelerate and refine our offerings from here.

“We’ll continue to focus on hiring and developing and retaining great people. We always talk about the fact that we’re an employer of choice. I really want to keep it that way.

“It takes a lot of work, but Ascot’s focused on this and the group is strongly supportive of what we’re up to here in Bermuda.”