As previously revealed by The Insurer, a number of long serving executives are departing the carrier in the wake of the firm’s chairman and CEO Barry Zyskind, his wife’s family the Karfunkels and backers led by Stone Point completing the takeover in November.
In December, this publication reported that Christopher Longo, AmTrust’s chief operating officer since 2016, resigned from the role.
Longo left AmTrust at the end of December to “pursue other opportunities”.
Longo joined AmTrust in 2001 and has been chief operating officer since 2016.
He served as chief information officer from 2006 to 2017. Before his time at AmTrust, Longo served in a number of functions with Credit General Insurance Company including as a commercial lines underwriter, actuarial analyst and regulatory compliance officer.
As well as Longo, AmTrust has also confirmed two separate retirements from board members today (9 January) that this publication has also previously revealed.
Michael Saxon, executive vice president – US commercial lines for AmTrust Financial Services, stood down at the end of the year.
Saxon, age 60, had been at AmTrust since 2001, and held a series of senior roles during his tenure with the carrier.
He served as chief operating officer for over a decade from 2005 to 2016.
Like Longo, he also joined from property and casualty insurer Credit General Insurance Company, where he was chief claims officer.
Saxon will continue on a consultative basis, as vice chairman of AmTrust North America.
The chief executive officer of AmTrust International Limited - the carrier’s European parent holding company - Max Caviet –also retired at the end of December.
Caviet, age 65, has worked at AmTrust since 2003.
He joined as president of AmTrust International Insurance Limited from 2003 through 2015.
From 2010 to 2015, Caviet also was chief executive officer of AmTrust Europe.
Last week, AmTrust confirmed to this publication that Tim Habeck, executive vice president of commercial lines at AmTrust North America, was also leaving the carrier.
Habeck joined the company in 2004 with its acquisition of workers comp specialist Covenant Group Companies and has held several senior roles including head of program division AmTrust Underwriters.
Following the wave of exits, Christopher Foy has been promoted to EVP, head of North American Commercial P&C, with responsibility for leadership of AmTrust’s North American commercial business and specialty programs segments.
His appointment was also unveiled by this publication earlier this week.
Foy joined AmTrust in 2016 as president of AmTrust Underwriters, with responsibility for the specialty program business segment.
Previously he was senior vice president at Clarendon National Insurance Company specializing in MGAs and program business nationwide.
In addition to Foy, Peter Dewey has also been promoted in wake of the string of departures.
He will now serve as EVP, head of international, with oversight of AmTrust’s international business.
Dewey joined AmTrust in 2003, and served as CEO at AmTrust at Lloyd’s since 2014.
Prior to joining AmTrust at Lloyd’s, Dewey was chief underwriting officer of AmTrust’s specialty risk & warranty division overseeing a team of actuaries, underwriters and risk management professionals.
AmTrust called the restructuring ‘AmTrust Forward’ which it said was an organization-wide program focused on “leveraging the Company’s unique strengths to offer select commercial P&C products and services globally where it can differentiate its offering and bring added value”.
“Our vision for AmTrust is to be a leading specialty commercial P&C insurer. We believe we can achieve this by focusing on local markets and niche products where we can add significant value,” said Barry Zyskind, chairman and CEO of AmTrust.
“As a private company, we have the opportunity to return to the core of what made AmTrust so successful over the past 20 years and manage our business for long term success through sustainably profitable future growth.”