The head of A.M. Best Ratings Services is retiring, and his replacement will come from within the organization. A veteran QBE executive is joining Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance in a leadership role.

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Larry Mayewski is retiring as chairman, president and CEO of A.M. Best Rating Services Inc. by the end of 2019, the ratings agency announced recently.

Matthew Mosher, currently executive vice president and chief operating officer, will become president and CEO of A.M. Best Rating Services Inc. on July 1, 2019. Mayewski is expected to keep his chairman role through the end of the year.

Mayewski started at A.M. Best in 1981 as a financial analyst and quickly moved into positions of increasing responsibility. He joined A.M. Best’s board of directors in 1992 and in 2000 became executive vice president and chief rating officer, with oversight for the life/health, property/casualty and international rating divisions. He has testified before Congress and participated in many insurance industry seminars, addressing the financial health of the industry and A.M. Best’s Credit Rating process, and in 2005, he led A.M. Best’s successful pursuit of its Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organization (NRSRO) designation. Mayewski moved into his current role with the establishment of the credit rating agency subsidiary in January 2016.

As part of the transition of responsibilities, Mayewski will assume the role of executive director at A.M. Best Rating Services Inc. and remain as chairman of the board for the remainder of the year.

Mosher held several management roles since joining A.M. Best in 1995 before assuming his current responsibilities as executive vice president and chief operating officer, as well as being the CEO of A.M. Best Asia-Pacific Ltd. in Hong Kong and co-CEO of A.M. Best’s Singapore subsidiary. With his new role, Mosher also will be responsible for A.M. Best’s Europe-based subsidiaries in London and Amsterdam. He is a graduate of Lehigh University, a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society and a Chartered Enterprise Risk Actuary.

Additionally, James Gillard will succeed Mosher as executive vice president and chief operating officer of A.M. Best Rating Services Inc. Gillard has been with A.M. Best since 2008 and spent the past four years leading the enhancements of the company’s rating methodology and rating tools.

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A veteran QBE executive is joining Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance in a leadership role.

BHSI said that Mark Walker will be based in the U.K., serving as head of Customer and Broker Engagement.

Chris Colahan, president, U.K. and Europe, BHSI, noted in prepared remarks that Walker is an experienced and savvy industry veteran who brings plenty to the table.

“I’m extremely pleased to have [Walker] leading our efforts to expand our broker and customer relationships across the U.K.,” Colahan said. “He brings to this new role more than two decades of industry experience and a great passion and commitment to growing BHSI’s partnerships in this important market.”

Previously, Colahan was head of SME, Affinity & Digital, Asia Pacific at QBE. Before that, he was CEO Hong Kong at QBE. He also served as CEO, Hong Kong & Specialty at RSA and held numerous other leadership positions at RSA in the U.K. and Emerging Markets over more than a decade.

Walker will work out of BHSI’s London office, the company said.

Source: A.M. Best, BHSI