Towergate Creates London Underwriting Unit; Leathem Named Director

Insurance intermediary Towergate is forming a London underwriting centre to be led by David Leathem as London director of underwriting. The unit will focus on specialist London market product lines.

Leathem will lead the establishment of a direct and facultative international property unit. This unit will operate alongside the casualty and liability unit announced in May and headed by John Marshall and Glenn Murphy. Towergate said more lines will be added.

Leathem joins Towergate from The Channel Syndicate where he was a founding partner and head of Property for almost six years.

Adrian Brown, CEO Underwriting at Towergate, said the London underwriting centre represents an opportunity for Towergate to build a “leading position in the market, one which our broking customers are telling us is increasingly crucial to their own businesses.”

Leathem said it’s “the perfect home for launching a London underwriting operation, backed by long term investment.”

Leathem began his insurance career in the Leeds and London offices of Consolidated European Insurance Co. in January, 1978. He joined CNARe, as property underwriter in 1983, after a spell at Unionamerica. Following almost two years at Alexander Howden from 1988 to 1990, he joined Hiscox Syndicate 1139, D P Spyer, until the syndicate merger following a series of catastrophic weather events.

Between 1993 and 1998 he was senior property underwriter at Generali London, until a move to Brockbank Syndicates; he was head of property underwriting at XLBrockbank until end of 2001. A founding member of Allied World European underwriting team, Leathem left there in 2011 to be a founding partner of The Channel Syndicate.

Topics Underwriting Property London