Westfield Specialty adds Rainone with excess casualty team from Vantage

Newly launched Jack Kuhn-led Westfield Specialty has added further senior underwriting talent from Vantage with the hiring of Joe Rainone and Steve Parker as part of a 10+ strong E&S excess casualty team from the Bermudian’s fledgling US insurance platform, The Insurer can reveal.

The move reunites the Atlanta area-based executives and their team with Kuhn, the former Sompo International global insurance head who joined Vantage last November before departing last month to build a new specialty operation at AM Best “A” rated Ohio-based P&C insurer Westfield.

Rainone is understood to have been a recent hire by Vantage as it looked to build out its US underwriting team. The experienced casualty underwriting executive was previously at Sompo International, where he was EVP for excess casualty.

He was hired by then Endurance from Alterra Specialty – now part of Markel – in 2013. Rainone joined Alterra in 2011 from E&S specialist RSUI and previously held senior roles at Lexington affiliate Landmark and Chubb.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Parker was hired by Vantage in March from Axis Capital as a senior vice president for excess casualty. The executive was a vice president of transportation at Axis after joining in 2016 after almost two-and-a-half decades at Gen Re.

Sources said that among other recent Vantage hires now moving to Westfield Specialty as part of the E&S excess casualty team are Steve Singer, who had been hired by the Bermudian as a vice president of underwriting.

The hires are the latest by Kuhn from Vantage and Sompo International.

This publication revealed last week that Fred Cooper had been hired from Vantage to head up a new financial lines division, as well as Ray Ash and Ryan Canning from Sompo International.

As previously reported, Kuhn has already begun building out underwriting capabilities on the platform in the professional liability and errors and omissions areas with the hire of Dan Wadley and Jeff Kulikowski, also from Sompo International.

Other hires include Tony Chimera from Sompo International.

Westfield and Vantage could not be immediately reached for comment on this article.