Reinsurance broker Beach & Associates has hired Warren Berkstresser as senior vice president of its US reinsurance division, Beach Re.
Berkstresser joins at the end of October and will report to Simon Hedley, CEO of Beach North America.
He will focus on developing Beach’s US property treaty and specialty programs business while also launching and running Beach’s new office in Seattle.
Berkstresser joins from Willis Re where he most recently served as an executive vice president of production and broking, specialising in the property catastrophe market.
Before that he spent five years’ at Guy Carpenter helping develop risk transfer solutions supported by predictive, financial and catastrophe modeling analyses.
“I am delighted Warren will be joining Beach. The role of the treaty broker is constantly evolving – brokers need to combine the sales aspect and understanding of their marketplace, with a deep, technical knowledge,” Hedley said.
“Warren perfectly embodies this 21st century approach; he has extensive analytical skills and an outstanding insight of the P&C market which complements Beach’s client focused and analytical approach to the risk transfer process.
“He is well respected in the market and a fantastic hire for us. I look forward to working with him to further build our property business and presence on the west coast.”
Jason Howard, CEO of Beach Group, added, “Acrisure has a significant retail property & casualty presence on the North American west coast so we are happy to be complementing this with our reinsurance capabilities.
“He will be vital in our US expansion plans and working with our parent Acrisure to identify mutually beneficial opportunities to build upon the Beach franchise.”
