QBE North America Appoints Eric Shanks Senior Vice President, High Net Worth, and Guy Huntley Senior Vice President, Personal Insurance Underwriting; Advancing Personal Insurance Business

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Apr 04, 2016, 03:32 ET

NEW YORK, April 4, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- QBE North America today announced two executive appointments in its Standard Property & Casualty department to support personal insurance business growth and expansion into the High-Net-Worth (HNW) niche market.

Eric Shanks has been appointed Senior Vice President, High Net Worth. In this newly created position, Mr. Shanks will have national responsibility for the development and execution of QBE North America's Personal Insurance growth strategy focused on the HNW segment. As one of the most respected HNW industry executives, Mr. Shanks has deep expertise in bringing forward complex insurance products for wealthy and ultra-wealthy consumers. He is based in San Francisco.

With over 25 years' insurance industry experience, Mr. Shanks started his career at Chubb before moving to AIG Private Client Group, where he advanced to Senior Vice President of the Central Zone. Mr. Shanks then moved to Fireman's Fund Insurance Company as Senior Vice President, Personal Insurance Chief Underwriting Officer. In that role, he was responsible for product management and underwriting for all HNW accounts. Mr. Shanks was most recently Vice President, Worldwide Signature Segment Manager at Chubb & Son, overseeing a HNW customer segment with over $1B in annual premium.

Guy Huntley also joined QBE North America today as Senior Vice President, Personal Insurance Underwriting, based in Chicago. In this new role, Mr. Huntley, a well-seasoned insurance executive with global insurance and HNW experience, will lead underwriting operations for QBE's Personal Insurance business.

Mr. Huntley is a proven Property and Casualty executive with a strong underwriting background, and a track record of driving profitable growth. He joins QBE from ACE Private Risk Services where he served as Vice President, Regional Underwriting Executive, for the Chicago Underwriting Center. Prior to ACE, Mr. Huntley was a Senior Underwriting Director at Fireman's Fund; and European Regional Manager and Regional Underwriting Manager at AIG Private Client Group.

Both Mr. Shanks and Mr. Huntley will report to Eric Pruss, Senior Vice President, Personal Insurance.

"I am pleased to bring two industry veterans with deep personal insurance and high net worth expertise to the QBE team. Eric and Guy are well respected industry executives with proven results in driving profitable growth, customer satisfaction and quality underwriting," said Kathleen Zortman, President, Standard Property & Casualty.

Mr. Pruss echoed Ms. Zortman's comments, and added, "These appointments further underscore our commitment to being a specialist insurance carrier. Attracting the best and brightest underwriting talent supports our vision of being a technically-led underwriting organization that builds the strongest relationships with our customers."

About QBE

QBE North America is part of QBE Insurance Group Limited, one of the largest insurers and reinsurers worldwide. QBE NA reported Gross Written Premiums in 2015 of $4.6 billion. QBE Insurance Group's 2015 results can be found at www.qbena.com. Headquartered in Sydney, Australia, QBE operates out of 43 countries around the globe, with a presence in every key insurance market. The North America division, headquartered in New York, conducts business through its property and casualty insurance subsidiaries. QBE insurance companies are rated "A" (Excellent) by A.M. Best and "A+" by Standard & Poor's. Additional information can be found at www.qbena.com, or follow QBE North America on Twitter.

SOURCE QBE North America