Charlotte Allen joins Chaucer as Head of Underwriting Governance. Global specialty insurer and reinsurer Chaucer has announced the appointment of Charlotte Allen as Head of Underwriting Governance. In her new position, Allen will lead Chaucer's newly established Underwriting Governance function, strengthening the company's governance framework and supporting the business as it continues to evolve and grow. The executive brings a wealth of experience in underwriting governance and compliance, joining Chaucer from Beazley where she most recently served as Underwriting Governance Manager. She initially joined Beazley in 2017 as Investment Compliance following her tenure at Janus Henderson Investors, EMEA & APAC. Her career also includes positions at Pictet Asset Management, Capital International and CQS. Allen's appointment is one of Chaucer's most recent leadership appointments this year. In January 2026, the re/insurer announced the appointment of Les Loh as Chief Executive Officer, Singapore, and Dan Bryan as Head of Reinsurance Asia Pacific. Loh, who joined Chaucer from Guy Carpenter, assumed his new position in March 2026, while Bryan, who served at AXA XL Re before Chaucer, started his new role in the second quarter of 2026.

CFC extends affirmative AI cover to media policy, completing wider portfolio rollout. CFC becomes the latest insurer to embed affirmative AI wording across its media and cyber cover. Specialist insurer CFC has introduced affirmative AI coverage within its media policy, effective July 30, marking the latest step in a broader program to embed explicit AI-related wording across its product range. Closing the AI coverage gap in media. The update reflects growing use of AI-assisted content creation across media, publishing, marketing and creative services, and is designed to give brokers and policyholders greater certainty over how cover responds to AI-related liability exposures. Under the revised wording, involvement of AI in media activities does not prevent the policy from responding, meaning the policy can still cover defamation, intellectual property infringement and other media and professional liability claims where AI has contributed to content creation. CFC has also updated the policy's cyber coverages with affirmative AI language, giving insureds the same level of protection available through the insurer's Cyber Proactive Response (CPR) product, alongside greater clarity on how established cyber triggers apply in an AI context, such as when AI hallucinations or large language model prompts cause unexpected computer systems downtime. "AI is no longer an emerging technology for media companies. It is already embedded in the way many businesses create, manage and distribute content," said Nick Line (pictured), chief underwriting officer at CFC. Line said the enhancements were designed to provide clarity on how coverage responds when AI is involved, while also addressing new cyber and privacy exposures arising from AI adoption, describing the update as another example of CFC leading the market as technology reshapes the risk landscape. With more than 20 years' experience serving media and entertainment businesses, CFC's media policy combines multimedia and professional liability cover, including defamation, intellectual property infringement and contractual liability, with cyber and privacy protection, property and general liability cover, and legal expenses insurance. The affirmative AI language builds on that existing structure rather than forming a standalone product. Part of a wider portfolio-level rollout. The media update completes a program CFC began in June 2026, when it introduced affirmative AI wording across six other core products, including technology errors and omissions, professional liability, eHealth, intellectual property, management liability and its CPR cyber product. Line said at the time that AI now sits within day-to-day business operations across every industry and interacts with the same risks insurers have always covered, and that CFC's focus had been on giving clients and brokers clarity rather than relying on implied or silent cover. A global market divided on silent versus affirmative AI cover. CFC's approach reflects a wider divergence playing out across international insurance markets. Insurance Insider has reported that Verisk subsidiary ISO filed AI-related exclusion endorsements in the US in January 2026, with larger carriers including AIG and Berkley following suit across general liability and professional lines. The London market, by contrast, has been slower to move: the Lloyd's Market Association's head of technical underwriting, David Powell, has said the association is waiting for an instruction from the market before drafting equivalent exclusionary wording. A Lloyd's Market Association survey of underwriters found professional indemnity to be the line of business with the highest perceived potential impact from AI-related losses, and Lloyd's has flagged AI-related risk within its own innovation risk category, which now accounts for around 5% of the market's overall gross written premium. Some Lloyd's syndicates have moved toward affirmative cover instead of exclusions, with Chaucer and coverholder Armilla launching a combined cyber and standalone AI liability structure offering aggregate limits of $25 million or more per organization. Beazley and QBE, both of which write substantial international books, have also introduced AI sublimits within their cyber programs capping AI-related payouts at around 10% of the total policy limit. Market implications. Set against that backdrop, CFC's decision to embed affirmative AI wording across its entire portfolio, rather than exclude AI-related exposures or leave them to silent cover, positions the insurer distinctly from carriers moving towards exclusionary language, particularly in the US. For brokers advising media, publishing and professional services clients internationally, the divergence between affirmative and exclusionary approaches is likely to become an increasingly important point of comparison at renewal, as underwriters across multiple markets continue to treat professional indemnity as the class most exposed to AI-related claims activity.

People Moves: Howden Re Expands Cyber Reinsurance Team With 5 New Hires; Zurich Promotes McBride to Newly Created Role as Head of International Construction. May 1, 2026 This edition of International People Moves details appointments at Howden Re and Zurich Insurance Group. A summary of these new hires follows here. Howden Re Expands Cyber Reinsurance Team With 5 New Hires Howden Re, the global reinsurance, capital markets and strategic advisory arm of insurance broker Howden, announced five new appointments to its cyber reinsurance team. The expansion reflects sustained growth in global client demand for Howden Re's cyber capabilities, establishing a dedicated US cyber reinsurance resource to service a growing US client base. Michael Giuliano joins as director on the cyber reinsurance team. Based in New York, he will work alongside the cyber and US casualty teams, tasked with building out Howden Re's cyber offering in one of the world's most dynamic cyber insurance markets. Giuliano joins from McGill and Partners, where he was a partner focused on cyber insurance and reinsurance portfolio solutions for complex clients. Ram Ramakrishnan joins as director to lead the cyber actuarial function, further strengthening the team's actuarial capability and supporting its leading modelling and threat intelligence functions. He joins from Lockton Re, where he served as a senior actuary leading the analytics for the cyber reinsurance practice, and supporting casualty and aviation. They are joined by three further appointments: * Lewis Birch joins as associate director on the broking side of the team from Aon, and will work closely with clients and markets on the delivery of reinsurance solutions; * Georgia Surridge joins as associate director leading the account management function within the cyber team, having previously been a senior account manager within the Japan team at Aon; and, * Haakon Pedersen joins the analytics team as associate from Chaucer, where he was a senior analyst in exposure management covering both direct and reinsurance business. "These appointments are a direct response to the demand we are seeing from clients," said Luke Foord-Kelcey, managing director, global head of Cyber, Howden Re. "Our business is growing quickly, and clients are looking for specialist cyber reinsurance expertise that combines deep market knowledge with strong analytics," Foord-Kelcey added. "Bringing Michael, Ram, Lewis, Georgia and Haakon into the team allows us to deepen that offering and service a rapidly expanding client base on both sides of the Atlantic." ***. Zurich Promotes McBride to Newly Created Role as Head of International Construction Zurich Insurance Group has appointed Patrick McBride as head of International Construction, effective immediately. For this newly created role in Zurich's Global Specialty Construction & Surety team, he will relocate to London and report to Kelly Kinzer, global head of Construction & Surety. Since 2021, McBride has led the Construction Property team in the U.S., delivering for Zurich's construction industry customers and driving innovation such as Data Center Project Guard, the first offering of its kind that can close coverage gaps, simplify complexity and enhance risk management for data center construction. Prior to rejoining Zurich in 2018, he served as Willis Towers Watson's Middle Market Broking Leader for the Mid-Atlantic Region, leading and overseeing all lines and industries in the middle market space. In his first tour at Zurich from 2010-2016, McBride served in various underwriting roles of increasing responsibility within the Construction Property team, having initially started his career with Zurich U.S. in the Underwriting Training Program (UTP). He is a graduate of Texas A&M University with a bachelor's degree of Business Administration in Finance. Was this article valuable? Interested in construction? Get automatic alerts for this topic.