Who we are
Inigo is a global specialist of high-risk, high-capacity insurance and reinsurance lines – serving some of the world’s largest commercial and industrial enterprises.
Data science is at the core of everything we do. The data we do (and don’t) use, and the powerful models that offer a genuinely different and useful perspective on risk to enable better decisions.
A blend of experience and ambitious talent, our dynamic people are the heart of the Inigo experience. Our values of radical simplicity and low ego underpin truly exceptional relationships.
If a life is measured not by its longevity, but by its accomplishments, we believe we’ve achieved a great deal in a short time and we continue to explore the boundaries of the speciality insurance and reinsurance marketplace.
Meet the team leading your dynamic vision
Back in 2020, three insurance stalwarts thought there must be another way. Driven by the idea that risk wasn’t to be feared but better understood. This has enabled people with vision and curiosity to find new opportunities and jump in.
Sink or swim, we would be there to support them – and come back stronger. Inigo is the result.
Meet our own people with vision.
Leadership team
Richard Watson
FOUNDER AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
Before founding Inigo, I spent 33 years with Hiscox Ltd. During this time, Hiscox grew to be the largest global specialist insurer, with GWP in excess of $4bn. My career saw me work through the ranks to become Chief Underwriting Officer – a position I held for seven years. Previously, my career encompassed multiple lines of business in insurance and reinsurance, culminating in becoming CEO of Hiscox Global Markets before I moved to Hiscox USA to serve as CEO during its formative years.
Russell Merrett
FOUNDER AND CHIEF UNDERWRITING OFFICER
With 25 years’ experience in the insurance sector, my career spans broking, underwriting and launching an insurtech, Kinsu, in 2017. I am the former Managing Director of Hiscox London Market. Having joined Hiscox in 1997 as a reinsurance underwriter, I spent my next 16 years in senior positions, including Active Underwriter for Syndicate 33. Before my time at Hiscox, I was a reinsurance broker at Greig Fester. Since 2015, I have served as an Independent Non-Executive Director of RenaissanceRe Syndicate Management. Previously, I was also Chair of the LMA’s Reinsurance Business Panel and served on the Non-Marine Committee.
Stuart Bridges
FOUNDER AND CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER
A chartered accountant, my previous roles include Chief Financial Officer of Control Risks Group, Chief Financial Officer of Nex Group plc (formerly ICAP plc) and Chief Financial Officer of Hiscox plc – a position I held for 16 years. Before Hiscox, I held numerous positions at financial services companies in the UK and US, including Henderson Global Investors. I am a Non-Executive Director, and Chair of the audit committee of Caledonia Investments plc and investment firm UIL Ltd. Previously. I was Chair of the LMA Finance Committee and a member of the ABI Finance Committee.
Andrea Aakre
CHIEF PEOPLE AND DEVELOPMENT OFFICER
London, United Kingdom
I head up our dynamic HR team. We support our Inigo colleagues to reach their full potential and succeed, while showcasing why outstanding talent should join us. I also drive diversity and inclusion – ensuring we reflect the clients we work with, and benefit from the different backgrounds, viewpoints and experiences a diverse team offers. In my free time, I love to travel and hike my way up the highest mountains.
Alice Kaye
HEAD OF REINSURANCE
London, United Kingdom
I am Chief Strategy Officer at Inigo, where I manage our dynamic Strategy, Third-Party Capital, Outwards Reinsurance and MI teams, alongside a multitude of other topics on any given day. I am a qualified actuary as well as an experienced reinsurance underwriter, having spent a decade at PartnerRe and Everest Re prior to joining Inigo. My other career choice was as a professional bridge player, and I dream of regaining some of my prior form. I am a mother to two young girls, who bring me much joy and keep me on my toes!
Steve Agutter
HEAD OF CLAIMS
London, United Kingdom
As Head of Inigo’s claims department, I am responsible for all classes of business. I bring 30+ years of insurance claims experience to Inigo and was formerly AIG’s Chief Claims Officer, International responsible for management of all Commercial & Personal Lines claims across the International & Speciality Divisions. I specialise in Property & Energy claims as well as Catastrophe response and will also oversee all inwards/ceded Reinsurance claims at Inigo. I have been at Inigo since the start joining in December 2020 and I sit on the Inigo Executive Committee.
Craig Knightley
CHIEF UNDERWRITING OFFICER INSURANCE
London, United Kingdom
Running our Casualty and Financial Lines involves refining our underwriting teams’ annual plan from reinsurance strategy to deciding which sub-segments are (and aren’t) most profitable. I also focus on career development and how we can support people to achieve their individual aspirations. When I’m not a taxi for my two young boys, I like playing and watching most sports, particularly football. I’m also studying for an Executive MBA. It’s a lot of work – but fun.
George Stratts
HEAD OF PARTNERSHIPS
London, United Kingdom
I am responsible for the First Party portfolio and am a member of the Executive Committee. I have been a leader in the insurance industry for over thirty years and my experience includes building diverse and global commercial property teams and leading organizations of all sizes. My technical expertise spans all lines of property and marine insurance in both regulated and non-regulated markets. Prior to joining Inigo, I was at AIG for nearly twenty years where I served in several roles including Chief Executive Officer of Lexington, President of Property and Special Risks and Chief Executive Officer of AIG’s Global Marine and Energy. I am an executive sponsor of Inigo’s diversity and inclusion initiatives. I am also President of The Focus Foundation, a non-profit that identifies and assists families and children who have chromosomal variations, Dyslexia, and developmental dyspraxia.
Matthew Rolph
HEAD OF DISTRIBUTION AND CAPITAL PARTNERS
London, United Kingdom
Our underwriting wizardry is flanked by Capital and Distribution. Beyond our core investors, our passion is developing the very best third-party capital support, including reinsurers and co-insurers of our portfolio – supporters we see as partners. I lead the development, strategy and management of these partnerships, and how we distribute this capital to key brokers – ultimately benefiting policyholders. Pre-Inigo, I was in Hiscox’s Executive team, and previously led placement across Specialty and Retail for Marsh UK.
Erdal Atakan
CHIEF OPERATIONS AND TECHNOLOGY OFFICER
London, United Kingdom
I lead our fantastic operations & technology teams. Our aim is to design and run a superior operating model whilst leveraging the best that technology, data & analytics has to offer. In doing so we empower our underwriting and claims teams to efficiently and knowledgably serve our partners and customers. To achieve this we work with a niche set of specialist service providers and deliver all systems using cloud native technology. We also make sure Inigo’s daily operations, resilience, vendor management and procurement activities run smoothly. Outside work, when not entertaining my two young kids I’m an exercise enthusiast and enjoy mountain biking around the Surrey Hills.
Vanessa Hartley
CHIEF RISK OFFICER
London, United Kingdom
As Inigo’s Chief Risk Officer, I bring over 25 years of experience in (re)insurance assurance functions within the Lloyd’s and London markets. Prior to joining Inigo, I held Head of Risk positions at Swiss Re, Catlin and China Re; developing the risk function through periods of internal and regulatory change. I also qualified as a Chartered Accountant with EY.
At Inigo, I am a member of the IMAL Board and Executive Committee and hold the SMF4 position. I oversee the Enterprise Risk Management Framework, ORSA process and Internal Model Validation. I report directly to the Inigo CEO and have a dotted reporting line to the Chair of the Risk and Investment Committee.
I am dedicated to delivering a high level of expertise and leadership in shaping Inigo’s risk framework and risk culture.
Maeve Grant
CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER
London, United Kingdom
As Chief Investment Officer, I ensure our portfolios generate a competitive return for the right level of risk, and our invested assets play nicely with our liabilities. I do this by working with fantastic external managers and leveraging as much Inigo knowledge as I can. Outside work, I am a non-committed hobbyist. I’ll try anything (most likely terribly) and have been knitting a scarf for my mother for about seven years. I’ll finish it one day.
Adam Alvarez
HEAD OF CAPITAL AND CLIMATE STRATEGY
London, United Kingdom
I am one of the underwriters in the reinsurance team. In addition to my underwriting role, I run our Insight team. I’m interested in how we can use data science, earth science and technology to improve our products. When I can, I like to get outside on skis, paddleboards or bicycles.
Board
- Sir Howard Davies
From 1995 to 1997, I was Deputy Governor of the Bank of England before taking the position of Chairman of the UK Financial Services Authority. In 2003, after six years with the FSA, I became the Director of the London School of Economics and Political Science, and am currently a professor of Practice at the Paris Institute of Political Science.
Between 2012 and 2015, I was chair of the UK Airports Commission. From 2015 to 2024 I was Chairman of the NatWest Group. I have also authored several finance-related books.
- Siobhan Cifelli
I have over 30 years’ experience as an HR Director within the Financial Services sector, working at C-Suite level within Banking, Asset Management and Insurance.
I now have a portfolio career, focusing on my Independent Non-Executive (iNED) roles bringing additional HR and talent management strategic thinking to the Boards I sit on.
I am currently iNED at Inigo Insurance and Chair of the Remuneration Committee. I am also an iNED at McGill and Partners, a specialist (Re)insurance broker.
Before my early retirement and the start of my portfolio career, I spent over 10 years at Aon plc in various global HR roles, culminating in the position of Chief Human Resources Officer, reporting to Greg Case. Previously, I was Group HR Director of Benfield Group (Reinsurance), HR Director for AXA Investment Managers and also spent many years at NatWest Bank undertaking various senior HR roles.
My passion is helping organisations achieve great performance through people. I am a qualified performance coach and understand the value of leadership capability within any talent strategy.
- Amanda Bowe
Amanda Bowe joined the Inigo Board as the Chair of the Risk and Investments Committee in 2022. She is also a member of the Boards of British Gas Insurance, where she is the Senior Independent Director and Chair of the Risk Committee, Coop Insurance Services and Moody’s Ratings UK, French and German supervisory boards.
Prior to building a portfolio of independent director roles, Amanda spent over 20 years at the Financial Services Authority (the predecessor regulator to the PRA and FCA), and four years with Aegon UK as their Group Regulatory Risk Director. Whilst at the FSA, Amanda held a variety of supervisory and policy roles including as Head of Department supervising Lloyd’s of London and the London Market.
- James Dean
I am a chartered accountant and have spent my entire career in financial services. Having started as a graduate trainee at Price Waterhouse, I became a partner in 1991. In 1998, I joined Ernst & Young to lead their Insurance Audit Practice, followed by seven years heading up a newly-established consulting practice. I then became managing partner of the UK Financial Services Audit Practice, and continued to lead client teams across the Banking, Insurance and Asset Management sectors throughout this time.
I have a strong interest in professional excellence. I chaired the ICAEW Insurance Committee for many years and was a member of their Financial Reporting Committee. I also led EY’s Global IFRS Insurance Group.
Since 2012, I have gained significant Non-Executive Director experience serving on the boards of UK retail insurer LV=, FTSE 250 listed Wealth Manager Rathbones and a small building society in my home town, Stafford. I am also Chairman of Reigate Grammar School – a leading independent day school.
- Tim Hanford
I am Managing Director of J.C. Flowers & Co. Europe and a member of the firm’s Management Committee. Before joining them in 2009, I worked with J.C. Flowers & Co. as Co-Head of FPK Capital. Prior to that, I was Head of Private Equity at Dresdner Bank and a member of the Institutional Restructuring Unit’s Executive Committee. My other experience includes serving as a Board Director of Schroders, based in Hong Kong and Tokyo, where I was Head of Structured Finance.
I also serve on the Boards of Directors of Inigo Insurance, Castle Trust Bank, and Interactive Investor Limited.
- Steve Gruber
Before passing the baton 6 years ago, I was a Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Oak Hill Capital Partners LP and chaired the firm’s Investment Committee.
Prior to Oak Hill Capital, I was a Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Insurance Partners LP – the lead sponsor of Tarquin Plc, the first corporate capital vehicle at Lloyds.
Prior to moving into private equity in 1990, I was a Managing Director at Lehman Brothers where I was co-head of High Yield Securities and led the formation of the firm’s first capital markets New Products Group. Today I am a private investor and serve as a non-executive director on a variety of private company boards in the financial services, healthcare and food & ag sectors.
At Inigo, I serve as advisor to and board representative for Oak Hill Advisors.
- Peter Jurdjevic
Our Journey
We raised $800m of capital in Q4 2020.
We bought a Lloyd’s managing agency and created Inigo. Through Lloyd’s, we gained access to a high security rating and international licences.
All legacy business was retained by the previous owner, allowing us to start 2021 with a clean balance sheet.
On 1 January 2021, we started writing Reinsurance, Property D&F and GL.
In February, we added D&O and Marine and Energy Liability.
In June 2021, we wrote our
first terrorism policy.
We started writing Aviation War
in Q3 2021.
$412m
We wrote $412m GWP in our first year
– making us the biggest start-up
syndicate in Lloyd’s history.
We added Onshore Energy and
Financial Institutions in Q2 2022.
$802m
We doubled our GWP to
$802m in 2022.
We started writing Cyber in
April 2023.
We delivered a series of Inigo events: a
Hackathon to aid our innovation; a
Climate, Catastrophe and Capital event
for property D&F and an inaugural Lloyd’s
Women’s Cricket Festival.
We formed a new data-first strategic partnership with IoT company Samsara, the first of its kind in the US fleet transport sector.
$1,083m
We grew to $1,083m GWP in our third year.
We formed the Partnerships
business unit in Q1 2024.
Our Partnerships team entered the US High Valued Homeowners market via our partnership with J&J/Motion Specialty.