Nicky Ablett appointed QBE's Head of Global Credit and Surety
QBE Insurance Group Limited (QBE), today introduced an expanded Global Credit & Surety team with the appointment of Nicky Ablett as Global Head of QBE's Global Credit & Surety (GCS) business. This announcement is in line with QBE's commitment to continuing to advance its GCS business to meet the emerging needs of its customers. She reports to Jeffrey Grange, President, Specialty Insurance, and Practice Leader, GCS, QBE North America. Ablett, who is based in London, will manage the GCS business across the four divisions: Australia and New Zealand, Asia, North America and Europe. The GCS team is responsible for engaging customers and addressing their risk mitigation needs, while growing the business globally.
Ablett has more than 20 years of underwriting experience covering global risks through the Lloyd's market and has served in various leadership roles during her nearly 13 years at QBE. Prior to this appointment, Ablett was Director of International Property and Political Risks for European Operations, where she oversaw a portfolio covering global programs including political and terrorism risk. Prior to QBE, Ablett worked at Talbot Underwriting Ltd. in political risk and has served on committees for the London market and Lloyd's, including the LMA Terrorism Panel and LMA Non-Marine Committee of Lloyd's. She is a Chartered Insurer and a graduate of the University of London. To further support the GCS team, QBE also announced the appointments of Barry Robinson as Chief Underwriting Officer of Global Credit & Surety and a member of the Group Underwriting Committee, and Yue Ma as Chief Economist.
Based in Singapore, Barry Robinson was previously Head of Credit & Surety Asia. In this new role, Robinson is responsible for underwriting risk management on a global basis, including risk appetite, standardized underwriting rules and guidelines, quality assurance, product development, and QBE's economic unit. Robinson has more than 20 years of experience working in the financial services industry and the credit insurance sector, including underwriting, management, risk and broking. Prior to QBE, he was with Euler Hermes PLC, the largest credit insurer in the world and a subsidiary of Allianz, for ten years and was the Underwriting Manager for the Asia-Pacific region for Chubb Insurance.
Based in New York, Ma brings 11 years of credit and country risk experience in credit, surety and political risk insurance. Most recently, Ma was Vice President, Senior Risk Manager, Political Risk, Credit & Bonds at XL Catlin. He holds a BA in Economics and Political Science from the University of Michigan and a MBA from New York University. He is responsible for economic and country risk management, including analyzing the impact of political and macroeconomic trends on the GCS portfolio.
These appointments round out the already strong Global Leadership team, which support QBE's producers and customers in their local settings, offering them a globally consistent high standard of service. The team also consists of Rutger Hesseling, Chief Operations Officer (Sydney) and the respective Regional Heads, John Sutherland (Australia and New Zealand), Brett Halsey (North America) and Trevor Williams (Europe).
"The GCS team demonstrates the truly global approach that QBE offers to its customers worldwide," said Grange. "As a specialist insurer that delivers deep expertise in the global trade credit and surety business, we are dedicated to continually strengthening our capabilities to meet the evolving needs of customers." "I am committed to continuing to foster a global trade credit and surety business by building on our current successes with innovative solutions. Core to our success is a focus on our customers and delivering risk mitigation solutions with a value added technical expertise that will be second to none," said Ablett. "QBE is uniquely positioned to deliver end-to-end solutions for our customers on a worldwide basis."
About QBE Insurance Group
QBE Insurance Group is one of the world's leading international insurers and reinsurers and Standard & Poor's A+ rated. Listed on the Australian Securities Exchange, QBE's gross written premium for the year ended December 31, 2016, was US$14.3 billion.