2024 London ILS Roundtable

Philippe Trahan

Managing Director, ILS, Ex-Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan

Philippe Trahan is one of the longest-tenured ILS institutional investors, having developed and overseen ILS portfolio for Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP) between 2007 and February 2024. During that time, he built and oversaw one of the largest and most diverse ILS portfolios, with US$3.5B assets invested across Natural Catastrophe, Specialty, Runoff and Life strategies. He backed numerous innovations aimed at developing the ILS marketplace, notably being the first London Bridge investor, the first ILS investor active in cyber, casualty, runoff and nuclear risks.

Prior to OTPP, Philippe spent five years at Aon Re Canada in actuarial and broking roles. Philippe is involved in a number of cross-industry initiatives, including the Sustainable Financial Action Council, the United Nation’s Climate Insurance-Linked Resilient Infrastructure Financing and the SBAI’s ILS working group.

Philippe is a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society, of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries and of the Institute of Corporate Directors.

Francesco Comola

Associate Director , LGT ILS Partners Ltd

Francesco is an Associate Director at LGT ILS Partners Ltd., Switzerland, and is responsible for catastrophe risk analytics and modeling. Prior to joining LGT ILS Partners in 2021, he worked as a model developer at Moody’s RMS in London, as a Post-doctoral Fellow in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles, and as a Post-doctoral Researcher in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at EPFL, Switzerland.

Francesco holds a PhD in Environmental Engineering from EPFL and a MSc in Civil Engineering from the University of Padova. Francesco is also a consultant to the World Bank’s Disaster Risk Financing and Insurance Program.

Benjamin Hohermuth

Nat Cat Specialist ILS, Schroders Investment Management

Benjamin Hohermuth is a Nat Cat Specialist ILS who joined in October 2023. He brings over nine years of academic research experience in flood hazards, hydropower, and fluid mechanics from ETH Zurich.

Benjamin holds a Diploma of Advanced Studies in Data Science, a PhD in Environmental Engineering with a focus on hydropower and fluid mechanics, and a Master of Science in Environmental Engineering, all from ETH Zurich.

Matthew Swann

Head of Science & Research, Integral ILS

Matthew Swann, Ph.D., is the Head of Science & Research based in London.

Prior to Integral, Matt was a Principal and the senior member of the Investment Team at Hiscox ILS. In this role Matt was responsible for advising on ILS product development, analytics and business sourcing. Matt joined Hiscox ILS in September 2015 as the Bermuda based Portfolio Manager. Prior to this he held the role of Senior Non-Marine treaty underwriter with Hiscox Re in London since November 2011. Matt joined Hiscox Re in 2007 as a catastrophe modelling analyst specializing in retrocessional risks.

Matt has a Ph.D in climate prediction from the University of East Anglia in the UK. He graduated with a first-class honors degree in Geography from the University of Oxford.

Dr Paul Wilson

Partner, Head of Catastrophe and Climate Research, Securis Investment Partners

Paul leads the Non-Life research function at Securis. He is responsible for developing Securis’ view of risk, maintaining a refined and sophisticated view of global catastrophe risk and ensuring Securis’ position at the forefront of related scientific developments. He provides technical advice to support origination, portfolio construction, and investor relations. Paul is a Partner and member of the Senior Leadership Committee and Non-Life Event Response Committee.

Prior to joining Securis in 2018, Paul was a Vice President in Risk Management Solutions where he led RMS’s development of catastrophe models for climate perils and oversaw RMS real-time response to catastrophes globally.

Paul has a PhD in Atmospheric Physics and a MSci in Physics both from Imperial College London. Paul is also a consultant to the World Banks Disaster Risk Financing and Insurance Program and has previously supported the Pacific Catastrophe Risk Insurance Company, a specialist development-insurer providing disaster risk financing to address the critical protection gap for small island states in the South Pacific.

Dr Raffaele Dell'Amore

Partner & Head of ILS , SIGLO Capital Advisors

Dr. Raffaele Dell'Amore is a Partner and the Head of ILS at SIGLO Capital Advisors. Before joining SIGLO in 2020, he was Head of Private ILS Strategies at Twelve Capital, a Swiss investment boutique focusing on ILS and insurance debt solutions, where he was responsible for investment decisions and the strategic development of the asset class ILS. Before that, he was a portfolio manager for liquid and private ILS at Schroder-Secquaero (today Schroders Capital ILS).

Before joining the ILS industry, Raffaele started his career in 2009 at global reinsurer SCOR, where he was responsible for the aggregation and capital allocation of natural catastrophe risks at group level and spent four years at Deloitte AG Switzerland, advising (re-)insurance companies on capital requirements for Solvency II and the Swiss Solvency Test.

Raffaele holds an MSc in physics from the ETH Zurich as well as a PhD in solid state physics from the University of Zurich. He is a regular speaker at industry conferences dedicated to ILS and alternative investments and contributes as a key note speaker to a number of education programs on alternative investments. In addition, he frequently publishes articles on various aspects and topics of the ILS asset class that are of particular interest to investors.

Leon Beukes

Senior Director of Hedge Fund Research , Willis Towers Watson

Leon is a Senior Director of Hedge Fund Research at WTW’s London office and chairs the firm’s Hedge Fund Research Group. Leon has over 25 years of industry experience. He helps several large institutional clients to design, implement and monitor their direct hedge fund and ILS portfolios. He also leads the firm’s efforts on sustainability reporting in hedge funds. Leon joined WTW (legacy Watson Wyatt) in October 2005 after four and a half years as an investment consultant at legacy Hewitt Associates (now Aon).

Prior to this Leon worked in South Africa for Investment Solutions. He is a Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.

Edward Johnson

Head of Business Development, Alternative Capital Partners, Swiss Re

Ed is Head of Business Development for Swiss Re's Alternative Capital Partners business. Based in London, Ed is responsible for building direct partnerships between Swiss Re and institutional investors globally.

With previous experience at Aon Securities and Leadenhall Capital Partners, Ed has worked in both structuring and sales roles across the ILS market since 2012 and has successfully structured and/or placed dozens of ILS transactions. Prior to this, Ed worked as an actuary in the insurance consulting practice at Lane Clark and Peacock.

Ed is a Chartered Enterprise Risk Actuary, an Associate of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries and holds a BSc in Economics & Statistics from University College London.

Brian Digney

Research and Content Director, SBAI

Brian Digney joined the SBAI in March 2023 in the role of Research and Content Director. He is responsible for content development and co-ordination of the ongoing and future working groups on a wide variety of topics, including valuation of private assets, ESG & carbon footprinting, governance, insurance linked strategies, digital assets, asset management regulation and compliance as well as new topics to be determined in the future.

Prior to joining the SBAI, Brian was the Head of Due Diligence & Governance Oversight at Innocap Global Investment Management (Ireland) Ltd (2018-2023) in Dublin, a subsidiary of Innocap Investment Management Inc., a US$50bn hedge fund platform. He acted as Designated Person for Operational Risk Management, a regulated role by the Central Bank of Ireland. He also sat on Innocap’s Irish Risk Oversight and Valuation Committees. In 2017, Brian joined Albourne Partners in London as a Senior Operational Due Diligence Analyst. From 2015 to 2017 he was employed as an Operational Due Diligence Analyst at Mercer Sentinel in London. From 2010 to 2015 he held various Associate level roles at Decura LLP, Morgan Stanley and Citi.

Brian holds an LLB Hons in Law with Criminology and an M.Sc. in Management and Corporate Governance from University of Ulster. Brian is a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst.

Bernard Bachmann

Co-CEO, COO & CRO, Swiss Re Insurance-Linked Investment Management Ltd

Bernard is SRILIM’s Co-Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Risk Officer. Bernard has over 20 years of experience in financial markets from working for Swiss Re Group Asset Management, ultimately as Head of Investment Manager Oversight, at Man Investments in Hedge Fund Manager Selection and with KPMG Financial Services. Bernard holds a MSc in Business Administration.

He is a CFA and a CAIA charter holder, as well as a qualified Swiss CPA.

Chantal Berendsen

Senior Analyst , Albourne Partners

Chantal Berendsen is a Hedge Fund IDD Senior Analyst – Insurance Specialist and joined Albourne in 2020.

Before joining Albourne, Chantal worked at Nephila Syndicate Management Ltd in London as a Senior Analyst - Underwriting & Claims. Earlier, Chantal spent two years at Hiscox, London as an Underwriting Insights Analyst.

Chantal holds an MSc in Empires, Colonialism & Globalisation from the London School of Economics & Political Science, and a BA in Political Science & German from Binghamton University, New York.

Patrick Bronger

Portfolio Manager, APG Asset Management

Drs. Patrick Bronger has been an Expert Portfolio Manager for Hedge Funds and Alternative Alpha at APG Asset Management based in Amsterdam since 2017. He also has been a Senior Lecturer in Investment Management at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam since 2002.

Between 2014 and 2017, Patrick was Chief Investment Officer & Member Executive Board at Conservatrix Group in Baarn. Prior to that, he was Head of Investment Strategy at ASR Nederland in Utrecht in 2010-2014. He also worked as Senior Portfolio Manager responsible for Hedge Funds & Tactical Asset Allocation between 2002 and 2010. In 1999-2002 he was an option trader at the German Derivatives Exchange Eurex. Between 1994 and 1999, Patrick was a researcher and a lecturer at Rotterdam School of Management.

Patrick followed the PhD programme at Rotterdam School of Management. He has a Master’s Degree in Financial Modelling from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam as well as a Master’s Degree in Philosophy from Erasmus University Rotterdam. He is a non-executive board member of several organizations in the healthcare sector and the cultural sector.

Guillaume Courtet

Head of Portfolio Management ILS , Schroders Investment Management

Guillaume Courtet is the Head of Portfolio Management ILS. He began his career at Marsh Risk Consulting in 2013, where he worked as a consultant focusing on reinsurance programme optimisations for one year. In 2014, Guillaume joined the ILS AXA Investment Managers desk as a quantitative analyst, a role he held for two years before transitioning to a fund manager position for an additional two and a half years.

In 2019, Guillaume moved to the ILS investment desk at Schroders, continuing his work as a fund manager. He is an actuary and a member of the French Institute of Actuarial Science.

Guillaume holds an engineering degree from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Saint Etienne (National Graduate Engineering School) and a B.A. in Economics from the University of Saint Etienne.

Leon Beukes

Senior Director of Hedge Fund Research , Willis Towers Watson

Leon is a Senior Director of Hedge Fund Research at WTW’s London office and chairs the firm’s Hedge Fund Research Group. Leon has over 25 years of industry experience. He helps several large institutional clients to design, implement and monitor their direct hedge fund and ILS portfolios. He also leads the firm’s efforts on sustainability reporting in hedge funds. Leon joined WTW (legacy Watson Wyatt) in October 2005 after four and a half years as an investment consultant at legacy Hewitt Associates (now Aon).

Prior to this Leon worked in South Africa for Investment Solutions. He is a Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.

Richard Lowther

Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Integral ILS

Richard Lowther is a Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Integral ILS, a US$ 2.5 billion independent alternatives investment manager focused on natural catastrophe (re)insurance-linked investments (“ILS”). Prior to launching Integral in 2020, Richard served as the Managing Principal of Hiscox Insurance Linked Strategies, an ILS fund manager which he helped form in 2014 for global insurance specialist Hiscox (LSE:HSX). In this role Richard led the overall ILS fund management team, implemented strategy, business development, fund structuring, and the build-out of operational and governance processes.

From 2008 to 2014 Richard was the Chief Operating Officer and a founding member of AlphaCat Managers Ltd, an ILS fund management subsidiary of Validus Reinsurance Ltd. Prior to this role he was a Partner with the Capital Markets Management Division of JLT Insurance Management Ltd in Bermuda from 2000 to 2008.

Richard has been involved in the Bermuda alternative risk transfer market since moving to the island from Canada to work with Marsh Management Services Ltd in 1998. Richard graduated from the University of Victoria, Canada with a BA in Economics and is a qualified Chartered Accountant.

Philippe Trahan

Managing Director, ILS, Ex-Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan

Philippe Trahan is one of the longest-tenured ILS institutional investors, having developed and overseen ILS portfolio for Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP) between 2007 and February 2024. During that time, he built and oversaw one of the largest and most diverse ILS portfolios, with US$3.5B assets invested across Natural Catastrophe, Specialty, Runoff and Life strategies. He backed numerous innovations aimed at developing the ILS marketplace, notably being the first London Bridge investor, the first ILS investor active in cyber, casualty, runoff and nuclear risks.

Prior to OTPP, Philippe spent five years at Aon Re Canada in actuarial and broking roles. Philippe is involved in a number of cross-industry initiatives, including the Sustainable Financial Action Council, the United Nation’s Climate Insurance-Linked Resilient Infrastructure Financing and the SBAI’s ILS working group.

Philippe is a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society, of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries and of the Institute of Corporate Directors.