International Union of Marine Insurance (IUMI) president Richard Turner has accepted a new job to drive maritime growth at Victor Insurance.
The world's largest managing general underwriter said Turner has become international head of marine, effective immediately.
In the newly created role, Turner will be responsible for building the international marine business with a specific focus on innovative, data- and analytics-driven insurance products and solutions.
Turner is based in London and reports to Anthony Stevens, president of Victor International.
The new hire will remain in his role at IUMI. He is the organisation's first British president in its 146-year history.
Former RSA man
Turner previously held multiple senior roles at RSA Insurance Group, including CEO of RSA Luxembourg, director of global risk solutions in Europe, and global marine director.
Stevens said: "Richard is a proven global leader with deep underwriting and commercial experience across multiple classes of business.
"He brings an acumen in how technology, data and analytics can transform insurance and risk management, and I expect he will deliver value to Victor's clients in the marine and cargo industry."
Turner said the increased use of data and further digitalisation have the capability to be catalysts for big change in the management of risk in shipping.
"During my time as president of IUMI, I have been articulating the opportunities available to firms around the world to address increased risk challenges through the greater use of technology," he added.
Victor operates in the US, Canada, UK, Netherlands, Germany, Italy, and Australia.
$1.6bn operation
It handles more than $1.6bn in premiums on behalf of numerous insurance carriers, through a large network of more than 25,000 active insurance agents and brokers.
In October, Turner told a Global Maritime Forum webinar that Covid-19 had caused a significant financial impact, estimated at $200bn, to the global insurance sector.
However, he said not much of that had been in the marine insurance sector.
But he added that the situation created an opportunity for the industry to "rethink the product it's selling, to reimagine it and to be thoughtful about the step changes that are taking place in the maritime sector".
"Covid more often than not has sped things up, but these were trends that were already starting to happen," Turner said.
