Fidelis creates new group director of underwriting role to manage its dramatic growth

Fidelis has created a new position of group director of underwriting to take responsibility for the quality of underwriting data, systems, processes and reporting.

Charles Mathias steps into the new position where he will also support the chief executive officers (CEO) of insurance, reinsurance and Socium in delivering Fidelis’ business plans.

Meanwhile, Phillip Murfet steps into the role of group chief risk officer vacated by Mathias. Murfet was formerly Fidelis’ group portfolio manager and head of catastrophe modelling.

Richard Brindle, chairman and group CEO of Fidelis, said the scale and scope of Fidelis’ underwriting capabilities have increased dramatically in the last two years, with the re/insurer now offering over 60 different products via brokers and MGAs.

“Our underwriting controls, systems and data are at the centre of what we do, not just for our own needs but also for those of our Socium partners and other stakeholders,” Brindle said. “We have already developed market leading tools to manage our underwriting and analytics.  We now need to move to the next level of automation and reporting.”

Mathias said Murfet “has worked closely with me and the risk team and has a thorough understanding of our risk appetites, framework and tolerances. He has already contributed significantly to the development of our proprietary FireAnt aggregation and analytics tool, and he will be looking for opportunities to enhance our risk management and reporting tools for operational and all other risk sectors.”