AXA XL's Excess & Surplus Casualty Insurance Business Announces New Product Leaders

NEW YORK, Dec. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- AXA XL insurance today announced the appointment of new Excess & Surplus (E&S) Casualty product leads in the US.   Ankur Chokshi has been promoted to Head of E&S Primary Casualty and Brokerage and Binding Authority and Kimberly Smid joins AXA's E&S team to lead its Excess Casualty E&S business.  Both report to Matt O'Malley, Head of AXA XL's E&S Casualty business. 

Commenting on the appointments, Mr. O'Malley said, "The E&S casualty market fills a critical void of coverage for many businesses that don't fit the standard insurance lines' mold.   Throughout their careers, Ankur and Kim have developed considerable industry knowledge and underwriting skill for addressing these hard-to-place risks.   We're pleased to be able to develop E& S underwriting talent like Ankur and continue to attract top market talent like Kim to our team.  Their high level of expertise and commitment to the E&S market put our clients' most challenging liability exposures in very good hands."

Exclusively through licensed, appointed surplus lines wholesale brokers, AXA XL's E&S Casualty business offers general liability coverages including commercial general liability, products liability, and discontinued products liability insurance and excess casualty coverages including standalone commercial umbrella. 

Based in Chicago, Mr. Chokshi previously served as E&S's Central Regional Vice President, and will now lead AXA XL's Primary Casualty E&S book of business.  He is also assuming responsibility for AXA XL's Brokerage and Binding Authority business, which provides multi-line E&S insurance solutions for various industry segments through program administrators.  Mr. Chokshi joined AXA XL in 2013 as an E&S underwriter with more than a decade of underwriting experience with positions at CoverX and Chubb.  He is a graduate of the University of Hertfordshire.

Ankur Chokshi also assumes leadership of AXA XL's Binding Authority and Brokerage insurance operation from Karl Fischbach who implemented fundamental underwriting, operations and distribution enhancements, restored profitability and positioned the business for future growth. 

Mr. Fischbach continues in his role a Wholesale Broker, Programs and Binding Relationship Leader, where in addition to ongoing responsibilities he will focus on developing the company's small to medium commercial business.

Ms. Smid joins AXA XL's New York office from QBE where she served as an E&S Underwriting Manager, leading the National Excess Casualty Team.  She brings 13 years of industry experience underwriting Umbrella and Excess Casualty accounts of various sizes with prior positions at CNA, Swiss Re and AIG.  Ms. Smid is a graduate of Farmingdale State College.

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¹AXA XL is a division of AXA Group providing products and services through four business groups: AXA XL Insurance, AXA XL Reinsurance, AXA XL Art & Lifestyle and AXA XL Risk Consulting. The integration project related to the activities of AXA Corporate Solutions, AXA Matrix, AXA Art and XL Catlin will be subject to legal and social validations prior to its implementation

SOURCE AXA XL