Liberty announces new underwriting roles in UK & MENA region; names new Divisional Directors

Liberty Specialty Markets (LSM), part of Liberty Mutual Insurance Group, today announced new Divisional Director roles to lead three newly-created divisions in its UK & MENA region: Marine & Aviation, Specialty and Property. Delegated Authority will be evolving to better address market trends. The new Directors will provide direction and priorities for their division, with a clear focus on the needs of clients and brokers. 

Meghan Walker will lead Marine & Aviation, comprising Aviation, Aviation War, Marine Cargo including the Liberty Cargo Consortium, Hull and War, Ports & Terminals.  Walker has significant underwriting and leadership experience, with 13 years at Liberty, heading up the Aviation team since 2020. Prior to Liberty she held broking roles at Aon and Lockton. 

Mike Burle will lead the Specialty division comprising Fine Art & Specie, Equine, War & Terrorism, Contingency, Accident & Health and Market Trackers. Burle has extensive experience in the Specialty classes. He has been at Liberty for 16 years, holding a variety of roles including Head of Marine and Underwriting Manager – War & Terrorism, Fine Art & Specie. He retains his role as Deputy Active Underwriter of Liberty’s Syndicate 4472. 

International Property and UK Commercial Property will be combined to create a simplified structure and recruitment is underway for a new Divisional Director for this division. Dermot Walsh, currently Head of Commercial Property, will transition into a new role of Director of UK Retail. In this newly created role he will be responsible for driving our leadership proposition forward in the market across commercial products in the UK retail space. With over 40 years of market experience, Walsh is ideally placed to lead this business.

Lewis Edwards will continue to lead the Delegated Authority Practice (DAP), including governance, management and underwriting of non-specialty Binders – Property, Casualty, EIL, and Supercoverholders. Critically a new Auto-follow business unit will be established within the DAP. This will be a standalone segment to help maximise the opportunities presented by the bifurcation of the market and algorithmic and digital underwriting. A seasoned underwriting leader, Edwards joined Liberty in 2018 to build the UK and International coverholder business and launched the DAP in 2022. 

President of LSM’s UK & MENA region, Luis Prato commented: “These changes are designed to help us deliver our strategic objectives and empower our teams to make better and faster decisions. By providing greater alignment with our brokers and clients we will be able to do business more effectively and increase our speed to market.” 

Chief Underwriting Officer, UK & MENA region, Henry Nelson added: “The changes will support the roll-out of our Integrated Business Unit model, which brings together underwriting with all aspects of delivery (claims, operations, finance, portfolio management, etc) and encourages them to contribute proactively to business success. The new structure offers clear career opportunities for our talented people to build their careers at Liberty.