Leadership

Paul Jardine, Independent Non-Executive Director and Chairman, joined the Board of Chaucer in 2020. He is also the Chairman of the Remuneration & Nominations Committee and a member of the Risk & Capital and the Audit Committees.

Paul is a renowned insurance business leader, with unparalleled London Market and Lloyd’s senior level experience. He has held a number of executive roles at AXA XL, after serving as Director & Chief Actuary at Equitas. Prior to this, he was a partner at Coopers & Lybrand.

Dr Zuo Huiqiang, Non-Executive Director, joined the Board of Chaucer in March 2019. He is also co-Chair of Chaucer Management Group.

Dr Zuo joined China Re Group in 1999, and currently serves as Deputy General Manager of China Re P&C. He is an expert in seismic hazard analysis and earthquake loss evaluation and has a PhD in earthquake engineering.

Lesley Watkins, Independent Non-Executive Director, joined the Chaucer Board in January 2020. She has a career spanning over 20 years in financial services and is a trusted business adviser with extensive senior level board experience and in-depth knowledge of the UK corporate finance arena. 

Lesley is currently a Non-Executive Director of Investec Bank plc and Braemar Shipping Services plc. She was formerly a Non-Executive Director of Game Digital plc and Panmure Gordon & Co plc. She was also a non-executive Council Member and Chair of the Audit Committee of the Competition Commission.

Jerome Faure is an Independent Non-Executive Director who joined the Board of Chaucer in 2017; he is also a member of Chaucer Insurance Company's board.

He is a highly regarded global business leader with a successful track record in insurance and reinsurance.

Jerome has held a number of high profile industry positions, he began his career at SCOR in Paris and over a 16-year period went on to lead their offices in Tokyo, London and New York. Subsequently Jerome has served as Chief Underwriting Officer of Tokio Millennium Re, Bermuda, as Partner of ILS Capital Management, Bermuda, and most recently, Chief Executive Officer of Global Reinsurance at Endurance Specialty, Bermuda. 

Andrew Pearce is an Independent Non-Executive Director, who joined the Board of Chaucer in May 2023. He is a member of the Audit Committee, Risk and Capital Committee and Remuneration and Nominations Committee.

Andrew is a recognised business leader with extensive experience in advising senior management on strategically important projects. He previously served as Managing Director at Accenture, and has extensive experience in application development and delivery across the Telco, Finance, Defence and Government sectors. Andrew served in the RAF for sixteen years as an officer, his final posting was as Deputy Head of IT / CIS Services at the Joint Services Command and Staff College.

Andrew has been recognised as a global minority ethnic role model by Green Park, featuring in their top 100 BAME leaders in Business 2018 and as one of the UK’s Top 30 most influential leaders of African, Caribbean or African American heritage working within legal, financial and professional services.

Tim Carroll is an Independent Non-Executive Director who joined the Board of Chaucer Insurance Company in 2017.

He has held numerous high profile insurance industry positions. He has served as the President of the Insurance Institute of London, having received the Chartered Insurance Industry medal for distinguished service in 2008. He is an international business leader having served as CEO of Swiss Re’s UK Holding company and CEO of GE Insurance Solutions. He has also served as US President and CEO of GE Reinsurance Inc. He has in-depth knowledge of the London market and has Lloyd’s senior level experience.

Kelan was appointed Active Underwriter for Syndicate 1084 in January 2022 and is responsible for the strategic development of the syndicate, having previously been leading the Marine, Energy, and Aviation divisions. Kelan has over 30 years' experience, joining Chaucer in 2015 to lead the Energy division. Prior to joining Chaucer, he gained extensive experience working for both major brokers and (re)insurers, including almost a decade with Arch Insurance leading their Offshore and then Global Energy operations. Prior to Arch, he underwrote upstream energy with AIG both in London and Singapore. He is ACII qualified.

Michael has more than 41 years’ experience in the insurance industry, having started his career at Lloyd’s in 1979. He joined Cox Insurance in 1986 where he was the Chief Executive from 1995 to 2002. In 1991, Michael formed and became the underwriter of Cox’s and subsequently Chaucer’s specialist nuclear syndicate 1176 and was later appointed to the board of the company in 1994. He is the deputy chairman of the Management Committee of the Nuclear Risk Insurers Ltd (NRI). Since 2016 Michael holds a non-executive role to the holdings board of Lancashire. He has served on the Council of Lloyd's from 1998-2001 and on the Lloyd’s Market board from 1998 to 2002.

Chaucer appointed Xamira as Head of Insurance in October 2021. Xamira is responsible for the delivery of strategy and portfolio management across all general insurance lines and underwriting entities.

Xamira is a multilingual, qualified lawyer, with over 25 years of experience in the insurance market. She joined Chaucer from AXA XL, where she previously served as Global Head of Title Insurance. Prior to that, she was Managing Director of Catlin South America, based in Bogotá. She has also worked for Willis and Cooper Gay Steel in New York.

Paul joined Chaucer in 2012 and is responsible for the delivery of strategy and portfolio management across all Non-Marine Insurance Lines. Paul’s remit includes the strategic leadership of the Casualty, Property, Accident & Health and Political Lines teams. Prior to this Paul held the role of Casualty and Political Lines Manager as well as 6 years working in Underwriting Risk Management, including leading the department as Head of Underwriting Risk Management. As Head of Non-Marine Insurance Paul is responsible for the strategy, business planning, performance, portfolio management and team management.
Paul has over 20 years of insurance experience, having previously worked at Beazley, Markel and Aon. Paul is a member of the Syndicate’s Underwriting Committee, the Catastrophe Underwriting Group and the Large Loss Committee.

Tony is Global Head of Claims, with responsibility for the strategic development of Chaucer's claims department, with a focus on delivering first class customer service. He is a marine specialist, with extensive experience in the energy and political classes. Tony has worked in the Lloyd’s market since 1986, and has been with Chaucer since 1990.

David joined the Lloyd's market in 1989 and Chaucer in 1990, working both in underwriting and claims. David became Claims Adjuster for Syndicate 1084 in 1993 and was appointed Deputy Claims Manager in 2003 for the Marine and Aviation Divisions.  In 2016, David was appointed as Head of First Party Claims.

Jonathan was appointed General Manager of Chaucer Insurance Company DAC in March 2021 in addition to his role as Head of Underwriting.  He is responsible for the management and strategic development of Chaucer's Insurance Company in Ireland.  Prior to this he was Active Underwriter of China Re Syndicate 2088.  Jonathan also worked at XL Catlin in Bermuda for over 10 years as Head of Casualty. In 2000 Jonathan was one of three founding members of QBE Syndicate 2000, a £25m Casualty Treaty syndicate that grew to be a £200m multi-line P&C syndicate. Prior to this Jonathan worked at Zurich Re and CNA Re in London.

Margaret joined Chaucer in January 2009 and was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Chaucer’s Singapore office in December 2013. She has over 25 years of market experience. Margaret specialises in infrastructure projects, power and utilities, oil and gas and high-tech heavy industries in Asia Pacific and the Middle East. Prior to this, Margaret worked for another Asian based syndicate and before that she was with Allianz working in different capacity from underwriting to China desk in 5 different cities. She is an elected member of the APMG (Asia Pacific Management Group), a group representing the interest of all service companies and underwriting divisions in Asia Pacific. Margaret holds a degree in Actuarial Science & Risk Management.

James leads Chaucer's Bermuda office as well as being Head of the North American Property Treaty Team. He began his career at CNA Re in 1999 and joined Chaucer in 2001. James underwrites catastrophe and risk XL, proportional and retrocession business.

Fawzi is the Senior Executive Officer of our Dubai office, with responsibility for delivering bespoke risk solutions and service expertise to clients in the Middle East and North Africa. Since joining Chaucer in February 2015, Fawzi has directed development of our underwriting in the MENA region and managed the establishment of our regional office in Dubai.

Fawzi has in-depth specialty broking and underwriting expertise gained over more than a decade in the industry, most recently as a Political Violence Underwriter at Lloyd’s with Chaucer in London.

Johnny leads Chaucer's Copenhagen office, having joined in November 2009 from Maersk Oil and Gas. He is responsible for the Scandinavian produced marine portfolio. Johnny has more than 27 years of underwriting and risk management experience and is well-respected within the European marine market, having held marine underwriting positions at Codan Insurance and Copenhagen Re. He has also worked at Codan as a Risk Manager and Maersk Oil as HSSEQ Advisor.