AGCS appoints Shanil Williams to Chief Underwriting Officer Corporate

• Effective January 1, 2022, Shanil Williams will move to the AGCS SE Board of Management from his current position as AGCS Global Head of Financial Lines
• He will be responsible for AGCS's underwriting business in the corporate lines segment including Liability, Property, Financial Lines, and Alternative Risk Transfer
• He is succeeding Tony Buckle who will be leaving Allianz for personal reasons

Johannesburg - Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty SE (AGCS) has appointed Shanil Williams as new Chief Underwriting Officer Corporate. In this role, he will join the AGCS SE Board of Management with effect on January 1, 2022, subject to regulatory approval. Currently Global Head of Financial Lines at AGCS, Williams will succeed Tony Buckle who will be leaving Allianz for personal reasons.

As new Chief Underwriting Officer Corporate, Williams will oversee AGCS's global underwriting business in the corporate lines segment such as Property, Liability, Financial Lines, and Alternative Risk Transfer, as well as the Allianz Group Cyber Center of Competence. In addition, he will lead Allianz Risk Consulting and key internal underwriting functions such as Accumulation & Catastrophe Risk Management, and Portfolio Performance Management. The Board oversight of the Energy & Construction line of business as well as of the Global Pricing team will move to the Chief Underwriting Office Specialty, creating additional responsibilities for AGCS Chief Underwriting Officer Specialty and Board Member Renate Strasser. 

In his current role as Global Head of Financial Lines, Williams has led the remediation of the portfolio in challenging market conditions, notably in the Directors & Officers and Cyber insurance classes. The turnaround has been underpinned with improvements in pricing tools, active portfolio steering capabilities and reinsurance purchasing to dampen volatility and improve sustainability of results. With this, AGCS has been able to pivot to a profitable growth strategy in Financial Lines during 2021, targeting new business opportunities across all regions supported by a significant expansion of its underwriting resources.

AGCS CEO Joachim Mueller comments on the leadership changes: "I would like to thank Tony for his high personal commitment and contribution to the successful realignment of our corporate lines portfolio. On behalf of the AGCS Board of Management, I wish him all the best for his future, professionally and personally. At the same time, I welcome Shanil as a new member to the AGCS Board of Management, as we focus increasingly on profitable growth and market opportunities. As one of our best internal talents in underwriting and a highly respected team leader of a large global underwriting unit, he is ready to make the next step in his career and assume wider responsibility for AGCS's underwriting performance and sustained business success." 

Shanil Williams (41) joined AGCS in 2016 as Country Manager for New Zealand. In 2018, he relocated to Munich to take on the role as Global Head of Commercial for Financial Lines before assuming the global leadership of full Financial Lines team at AGCS in 2019. Prior to joining Allianz, Williams spent 14 years with AIG, and held a number of increasingly senior Financial Lines regional leadership roles in Auckland, Johannesburg, Paris and London. A New Zealand national, Williams graduated in Business and Finance at the University of Canterbury.