Bas Wijnhoven appointed D&O/FI Manager, Benelux and Nordic Countries

Liberty Specialty Markets has appointed Bas Wijnhoven as Manager of the D&O/FI Department with effect from 1st June 2020. Benelux General Manager, Rob Groenen, said he is pleased to announce that Liberty Netherlands has been able to fill this position internally with a strong candidate to replace Jonah Alblas.

Bas has 20 years experience in D&O/FI insurance and has been working for Liberty for 2.5 years. He has previously worked for Chubb, Bloemers Nassau and Zurich. Bas succeeds Jona Alblas who, after more than 13 years, has decided to give his career a new direction by becoming a broker at Marsh Netherlands.

At Liberty, Wijnhoven will be responsible for the further development of the D&O/FI portfolio in the Netherlands, as well as its profitability. In addition, he has already started growing the business in Belgium and Scandinavia, which will certainly remain an important pillar for Liberty’s business in the years to come. According to Rob Groenen, service provision to brokers and intermediary agencies comes first at Liberty and he has demonstrated this by announcing that even in these uncertain times, when no one knows how hard the economy will be hit by COVID-19, Liberty will immediately and actively seek to strengthen the D&O/FI team with a senior underwriter.

Mae-Ling Smit will also be back. She left Liberty at the end of last year to take some personal time off and go on a world trip. Due to COVID-19, she had to shorten her trip and since her position has not yet been filled in, Liberty has decided she can resume her former role as underwriting assistant within Fine Art & Specie (led by Paul Seip). It is expected that Mae-Ling will resume her activities on 1st July or as soon as possible.

Finally, the Professional Liability Department will be strengthened with Alexander Breitbarth, an experienced underwriter who previously worked for Vivat and Delta Lloyd, among others. He will report to Marnix de Kievit, who leads the IP team, and will start in the department as soon as the office is fully or partially reopened and teleworking is no longer required.