Exclusive: Aurenity prepares to enter E&S property with Woie hire

By David Bull

Aug 18 - (The Insurer) - Tech-enabled MGA Aurenity has appointed John Woie as executive vice president of its new E&S property business, which will focus on the midsize to large account segment.

Woie was most recently head of U.S. property at Kemah Capital. Before that he held senior underwriting roles at Everest Re and PartnerRe specialising in large, complex risk underwriting and the management of automatic facultative facilities.

In a statement confirming the news to E&S Insurer, Aurenity said that Woie had built Kemah Capital’s U.S. property division from the ground up into a “sustainable, profitable program for blue-chip capacity partners”.

This was achieved through disciplined underwriting, targeted market expansion and robust national wholesale relationships, it added. Kemah Capital initially wrote E&S property on Berkshire Hathaway paper and currently has paper from Sutton National, Sutton Specialty and Specialty Builders, according to its website.

At Aurenity, Woie will build a portfolio targeting midsize to large account E&S property on both primary and low excess layers for national clients through exclusive wholesale distribution.

In the statement, Aurenity’s founding CEO Nick Davies said: “(Woie's) deep property underwriting expertise and demonstrated success in establishing profitable, scalable platforms will be accretive as we broaden our reach into property.”

Aurenity CUO Doug Trainor added: “John’s strategic vision and passion for leveraging technology are a natural fit with our underwriting culture. His ability to pair risk selection with an entrepreneurial talent for building high-performing teams makes him the ideal leader to drive our diversification into short-tail segments.”

E&S property will take Aurenity’s portfolio of programs to five, adding to established primary casualty, excess casualty, lead excess and public entity offerings.

Aurenity – which is backed by Chicago-based investor Agman – launched at the start of 2022.

It went past $100 million of in-force premium last year and is on course to grow its top line by a further 60% at the same time as expanding EBITDA margin.

Sources said its next area of focus is likely to be in professional liability and cyber.