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It has been a week of hires for specialist insurer Beazley. Shortly after adding Hannah Smith to its US healthcare liability team, the insurer has announced a key appointment in its US large commercial property team.
Matthew Westhoff has been named head of US large commercial property based in New York. He will report directly to Beazley’s global head of commercial property, Simon Jackson, and he will manage the US-based team, working alongside the property team in London.
Westhoff brings 16 years of insurance experience to the role. Prior to joining Beazley, he was a vice president at Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance, leading the Northeast region property underwriting team from 2014. Before that, he spent five years at AIG as a senior property underwriter and regional property leader for the New York Metropolitan region.
Joining Westhoff as a new member of Beazley’s commercial property team is Ashely Irwin, who has been hired as a commercial property underwriter, also in New York. She joins Beazley from Ironshore, where she spent the past year as a general property underwriter. Prior to that, she was a property broker with Marsh & McLennan Companies for 11 years.
“I’m delighted to appoint two highly experienced, specialist underwriters to our commercial property team in the United States,” commented Simon Jackson, global head of commercial property. “We continue to focus on forging strategic relationships with brokers and large property clients and to ensure we are well represented in both London and the US in order to provide them with greater choice and accessibility to our underwriters.”
