Vanessa Maxwell appointed Global Head of Financial Lines at Allianz

Vanessa Maxwell, Global Head of Financial Lines at Allianz

• Vanessa Maxwell joins Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty from Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance from her current role as UK Country Manager
• She succeeds Shanil Williams as Global Head of Financial Lines after he moved to the AGCS Board of Management

Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty SE (AGCS), the corporate insurance carrier of Allianz Group, announces the appointment of Vanessa Maxwell as new Global Head of Financial Lines. In this role she will succeed – and also subsequently report to – Shanil Williams who was promoted to join the AGCS SE Board of Management in January 2022 as Chief Underwriting Officer Corporate.

Williams was Global Head of Financial Lines at AGCS from 2019 to the end of 2021 and will continue to oversee this line of business on an interim basis until Maxwell joins AGCS at the latest in June 2022. Both will be based in AGCS’s London office.

Financial Lines is the largest line of business of AGCS contributing approximately one fifth to the company’s global premium volume of €9.5 billion in 2021 and is targeting new business opportunities across all regions with products such as Directors & Officers (‘D&O’), Professional Liability and Cyber insurance.

Vanessa Maxwell currently oversees the UK franchise of Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance as a Country Manager. Before assuming this role, she gathered extensive experience in Financial Lines underwriting in increasingly senior roles, most recently as Head of Executive and Professional Lines UK at Berkshire Hathaway. Before joining Berkshire Hathaway in 2017 she held various managerial roles in Financial Lines and Professional Liability underwriting at AIG (including subsidiaries) in London and New York. She started her insurance career in 2002 at AIG in New York after graduating from the Alfred Lerner College of Business & Economics at University of Delaware, United States.

AGCS Chief Underwriting Officer Shanil Williams welcomes Maxwell to the AGCS leadership team: “After a detailed search of talent in the market, I am very glad that Vanessa has decided to join AGCS and look forward to working closely together with her in this important area of our business. She will take over the global leadership of our Financial Lines book at exciting times as we continue to boost our underwriting capabilities with new tools and technologies and also look to expand our portfolio globally in a profitable way. Vanessa’s extensive underwriting know-how as well as her global market experience will be tremendous assets to continue the momentum we have in Financial Lines and drive further growth.”