2025 Toronto ILS Roundtable

Emily Birrell

Head of Client Relations, Integral ILS

Emily is a founding member and Head of Client Relations at Integral ILS, joining in June 2020. Previously, she worked as a consultant for the Future Fund of Australia, leading a review of the ILS program. From 2012 to 2018, Emily held various roles at Hiscox, where she was integral to launching the ILS platform and developing tailored ILS fund products.

In 2021, Emily was named Trading Risk’s ‘Young ILS Professional of the Year’ and holds a BSc Hons in Financial Mathematics from Newcastle University.

Lorenzo Volpi

Deputy CIO, Managing Partner , Leadenhall Capital Partners

Lorenzo joined Leadenhall in 2010. He has over 25 years of capital markets and reinsurance broking experience (both traditional and non-traditional) having worked at Leadenhall Capital Partners since 2010 and previously at Aon Benfield Securities, BPM London, and Aon Re. At Leadenhall, Lorenzo is a Member of the Management Board, in charge of Global Business Development responsible for looking at new business opportunities and fundraising across non-life insurance investments and life & alternative credit investments.

During his career, Lorenzo looked at the complete spectrum of alternative methodologies of risk transfer, risk financing, and the convergence of the reinsurance and capital markets. He led the sourcing, structuring, marketing, and distribution of various projects and transactions on the securitization of insurance assets (including the setup of a couple of insurance linked asset managers).

He holds a Master’s Degree in Finance from the University of London.

Mark Gibson

Senior Investment Director, Schroders Capital

Mark has acted in varied roles in the reinsurance and ILS markets. His early years were spent as a reinsurance broker at Guy Carpenter. After hurricane Andrew in 1992 he worked on some of the earliest ILS transactions based on the Chicago Board of Trade catastrophe indices and subsequently on catastrophe bonds. As the ILS market developed he joined BNP Paribas and was active in structuring, distributing and investing in ILS. He returned to the reinsurance market in 2012 during which time he was a protection buyer for two reinsurance companies using traditional reinsurance and ILS in the forms of bonds and sidecars. He joined Schroders Capital in 2020 and is responsible for business development and product strategy as part of the Senior Leadership Team within the ILS division.

He is an Associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute and a Chartered Insurance Practitioner. He has a BA Honours degree from the University of Exeter.

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.

Michael Hamer

Partner and Senior Analyst , Albourne Partners

Michael Hamer is a Partner and Senior Analyst at Albourne Partners, a leading alternatives consulting company. He has been a full-time employee since Jun 2005, initially covering esoteric strategies including insurance and more recently specializing in Insurance funds.

Prior to joining Albourne, he was with Centre Re, a finite risk reinsurer in London. Dublin and Bermuda in management, underwriting and risk management. Before joining Centre Re, Michael had spent 15 years with JP Morgan in Financial Analysis (London), Strategic Planning (NYC), Capital markets (NYC), Corporate Finance (Australia) and Mergers and Acquisition Advisory (London).

Michael has a B.Sc (Hons) from Melbourne University in Pure and Applied Mathematics and a M.Phil and a D.Phil in Mathematical Economics from Oxford University.

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.