Management team

William Stovin

President

William was appointed president in 2008, and he has a background in both underwriting and broking. In 1996 he joined Octavian Syndicate Management and helped establish a new syndicate. Following Markel’s acquisition of the Terra Nova Group in 2000, he played a leading role in shaping and developing Markel International.

Andy Davies

Chief Operating Officer

Andy was appointed chief operating officer of Markel International in January 2015 having previously been finance director of Markel International since 2000. Andy is responsible for the overall operating performance of Markel International. Following the significant growth at Markel International in recent years the majority of Andy’s time is spent working with the support functions and the underwriting operations in the UK and overseas ensuring that they successfully grow through organic growth and acquisitions. Andy joined the Terra Nova Group in 1994 as group financial controller, moving from Coopers & Lybrand where he specialised in the insurance and financial services sector

Nick Line

Chief Actuary and Director of Underwriting Operations

Nick has been chief actuary since 2003 and joined Markel with its acquisition of Terra Nova in 2000. Nick was responsible for building an actuarial team with responsibilities for reserving, pricing, capital modelling and catastrophe management. In 2017 he was also appointed director of underwriting operations, directing a team with responsibilities for underwriting, oversight, outward reinsurance and wordings.

Simon Wilson

Managing Executive of Global Strategy

Simon joined Markel International in 2010 as director of international development and was appointed director of national markets in 2015. He is responsible for Markel’s operations across Europe and Canada. Simon joined Markel from Lloyd’s of London where he was managing director of Lloyd’s Asia, based in Singapore. Simon is an associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute and is a member of several London market committees, including the Lloyd’s market development steering group, and the LMA strategy committee.

James Hastings

Managing Director For Wholesale

James was appointed managing director for wholesale in January 2020. He leads an international division comprised of underwriting, claims, delegated underwriting and underwriting support services. Prior to this role he was the managing director for the speciality and financial lines division for Markel International. James joined Markel in 2013 from QBE Insurance where he was an underwriting manager within the professional and financial Lines division. He has also previously worked for Hiscox and the Equitable Life Assurance Society.

Anne Whitaker

Non-Executive Director

Anne was appointed non-executive director in November 2013. Prior to joining Markel, she worked for EY for nearly 30 years, latterly as Audit Partner – Investment Management. Anne left the firm in 2008 to take up a number of voluntary, public sector and private sector roles with organisations including the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, an NED of Barts Health NHS Trust, and YourStory, a Lambeth charity for local young people.

John Spencer

Non-Executive Director

John joined the board in 2016, and was appointed non-executive chairman in October 2020. He has more than 35 years experience in the insurance industry, and has held executive and non-executive appointments in underwriting and broking firms in the London Market and across the wider UK insurance sector. In addition to his role at Markel, he is currently non-executive chairman of Accelerant Insurance Company Limited and is a member of the Bain External Advisor Network.

Kalpana Shah

Non-Executive Director, Corporate Management

Kalpana joined Markel International as a non-executive director in September 2020. She worked at Hiscox for nearly 20 years where she was group chief actuary and a partner. Prior to that, she was the deputy to the director of underwriting at Groupama Gan, having started her career in finance at the London Commodity Exchange where she was head of the statistics department and worked in business development. Kalpana is also Chairman of RiverStone Managing Agency Limited and Senior Independent Director of RiverStone Insurance (UK) Limited. She is also a Trustee of Barnet Youth Zones (a charity for children in London). In 2019, she was elected to the Council of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries and is a member of their Audit and Risk Committee.

Wai Au

Non-Executive Director

Wai joined Markel International as a non-executive director in October 2020. Wai has experience as a senior executive, non-executive and advisor across a broad spectrum of national and international Financial Services organisations. She has held multiple board level roles in her executive career, many of which have included executing large, complex strategic transformation programmes. She is particularly experienced in the Banking and Insurance sectors. Over the last ten years Wai has provided advisory services though challenging times. During this period, she also held senior advisor, chair of risk/audit and NED roles for numerous multinational financial services businesses, including China Construction Bank, Prudential and QBE, Equifax, Oaktee Capital, Accenture and Computershare. In these roles her focus has been on strategy, risk and governance, particularly with regards to utilising her international experience and line of sight to execute innovative and complex programmes of work. Wai’s broad experience includes such areas as Payments, UK Clearing, innovation and transformation at both the executive and non-executive level.