Our People
Our people have extensive experience in developing the processes, systems and skills required for supporting a run-off. In addition, we have specialist skills covering run-off claims management and inspections, commutations, asset and liability management, actuarial and change management.
Executive Directors
Gilles Erulin
Chief Executive Officer
Gilles has been Global Head of Insurance for Groupe Artémis since 2000 and previously headed its Merger and Acquisitions Group. He was responsible for the creation in 2001 of Tawa. Gilles managed the acquisition of Aoba (Japan) by Groupe Artémis, the first life insurance company ever acquired 100 per cent by overseas investors in Japan, and supervised that company's run-off strategy from 1999. He managed the sale of Aoba (Japan) in September 2004 to Prudential Life of Japan. Amongst numerous other transactions within the Financière Pinault group, Gilles also managed the take-over of Christie's International Plc, which involved the raising of £780 million of financing. He was appointed to the Board of Tawa in April 2001.
Colin Bird
Chief Financial Officer and Chief Executive Officer of CX RE and KX RE
Colin formed the Tawa Group in 2001 with financial backing from Groupe Artémis and is Chief Financial Officer. Colin is also responsible for the Tawa insurance companies, being the CEO of both CX RE and KX RE. In that role he handles their relationships with the regulators, the boards and the manager. Colin was previously the Financial Services Leader and Head of Risk Management for the Global Financial Advisory Services division of PwC, a member of its Global Insurance Leadership Team and an elected member of the firm's Global and UK Supervisory Boards. Colin worked at PwC for 33 years (20 years as a partner), mainly in financial services with particular emphasis on the insurance and banking industries. For many years Colin was a leading corporate recovery specialist, based in London, undertaking restructuring assignments for a variety of financial services clients in the UK, US and Far East including distressed banks and insurance companies as well as acting as Inspector of a number of banks for the regulatory authorities.
David Vaughan
Chief Operating Officer and Chief Executive Officer of Tawa Management
David joined Tawa in 2001, where he has focused on acquisitions and operational effectiveness, particularly claims, reinsurance and commutations. David's current focus is on targeting acquisition opportunities and creating value from Tawa's run-offs. A former partner in the Insurance Business Restructuring Services Group of PwC, David has specialised in the insurance and reinsurance industry since 1987; as a result, he has extensive experience in advising participants in the insurance industry including underwriters, brokers, underwriting pools and life companies. David has advised run-offs on exit routes (including sale, reinsurance and solvent schemes), run-off strategy (advice, set-up and operational assistance), financial restructuring and effectiveness reviews (especially run-off administration), support on reinsurance disputes and insolvency advice and appointments.
Non-executive Directors
Robin Jackson
Chairman and Independent Non-executive Director
Robin joined the Board of Tawa in February 2002. In the last 20 years he has been chairman of a number of companies and panels including the London Market Asbestos Working Party from 1984-1996 co-ordinating London markets response to asbestos; Lloyd's Market Claims Services Ltd from 1988-1998; CentreWrite Ltd from 1992-1994; RF Bailey (Underwriting Agencies) from 1992-1999 and from 2001-2003; and the Specialist Claims Unit at Lloyd's. Robin has also been a member of the Equitas Project Core Reserve group at Lloyd's and a non-executive director of the Lloyd's managing agency Newline Syndicate Management Ltd. Robin is currently an arbitrator in reinsurance disputes in the UK, US and Australia.
Gilles Pagniez
Non-executive Director
Gilles has served on the Board of Tawa since February 2004 having previously been on the Board of Tawa from February 2002 to April 2003. He is also a member of the CX RE and the KX RE board. Gilles has been the General Counsel of Groupe Artémis since 1996 and also is a director on a number of boards of companies as the Groupe Artémis representative. Gilles has been involved in numerous M&A transactions on behalf of Groupe Artémis such as the take-over of Christie's International Plc in 1998, the acquisition in 1999 of Aoba (Japan), a Japanese run-off life insurance company, and its sale to Prudential Life of Japan in 2004 and the negotiation of the acquisition of Yves Saint Laurent on behalf of Gucci Group NV.
Anthony Hamilton
Independent Non-executive Director
Anthony joined the Board of Tawa in March 2004 having previously been on the board of CX RE. Anthony began his business career in the City of London and in New York where he worked for the investment banks Schroders and Morgan Grenfell. In 1978 he joined the investment bank Fox-Pitt, Kelton ("FPK"). He was a principal shareholder and served as Executive Chairman of FPK from 1994 until FPK was acquired by Swiss RE in March 1999. Anthony retired from his executive responsibilities at FPK in 2004 and as a director of Swiss RE Capital Markets Limited in 2006. During his time at FPK he served on the boards of a number of insurance companies. Anthony has been a director of AXA Equity and Law plc since 1993 and Chairman since 1995. In 2000 he was appointed Chairman of AXA UK plc, the holding company of AXA's UK insurance interests. Since 1995 he has been a member of the Supervisory Board of AXA Paris and of the AXA Remuneration Committee. In 2007 he was appointed Chairman of the AXA Group Audit Committee; he also serves on the Board of Directors of AXA Financial Inc. New York. From 2000 to 2006 Anthony served on the board of PPR in Paris and as a member of the Audit Committee.
John Hendrickson
Independent Non-executive Director
John joined the Board of Tawa on 28 June 2007. John is Founder and Managing Partner of SFRi LLC, an independent investment and advisory firm that focuses exclusively on the insurance industry. From 1995-2004, he held various management positions within Swiss RE, and also served as a Member of Swiss RE's Executive Board. From 1985-1995, John was with Smith Barney, the US investment banking firm, where he focused on the insurance sector. John has served as a director for several insurance and financial services companies.
Patricia Barbizet
Non-executive Director
Patricia joined the Board of Tawa in April 2001. Patricia was a senior financial executive in the Renault Group before her appointment as Chief Financial Officer at Financière Pinault group in 1989. She has been a Director and Chief Executive of Financière Pinault since 1992 and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of PPR since 2002. She has also been the Vice Chairman and director of the Board of PPR since May 2005. Patricia is currently Chairman and CEO of Piasa, a director of Société Nouvelle du théâtre de Marigny, the Chairman of Christie's International Plc and a director of TF1, Fnac SA and Air France. She is also a member of the Supervisory Board of Gucci Group NV and Yves Saint-Laurent Couture and a member of the Management Board of SC du Vignoble de Château Latour.
Loïc Brivezac
Non-executive Director
Loïc joined the board of Tawa on 28 June 2007. Loïc joined Financière Pinault in September 1999, first as an accounting manager and then, from January 2006, as the financial controller manager. Prior to joining Financière Pinault, Loïc was an auditor at Adexi SA from 1990-1997 and an accounting manager at Capri Enterprises SNC (Real Estate) from 1997-1999. Loïc is currently a director of Stade Rennais football club.
Senior Management
Stephen Baxter
Head of Finance
Stephen transferred to Tawa as part of the acquisition of CNA Re and heads up Finance with specific responsibility for financial reporting, planning and asset and liability management. Prior to joining CNA Re in 1998 Stephen worked with PwC where he spent four years specialising in audit, litigation support and consultancy projects within the London reinsurance market. Principal clients included the Corporation of Lloyd's, Equitas, CSFB and Eagle Star.
Prior to PwC, he lectured in financial reporting at business schools in London and the Far East after training and qualifying as a chartered accountant with Ernst & Young. He holds an MA in History from the University of St Andrews.
Janet Collins
Head of Human Resources
Janet joined Tawa from PwC in 2002 to manage the change to run-off for CX RE. She has over 20 years experience in supporting organisations and people to develop and deliver in changing circumstances, having designed and delivered many strategic change projects. Janet's experience includes establishing and leading a centre of excellence for managing the HR implications of mergers, acquisitions, and spin-offs for PwC and its clients. She has an MA in Strategic Human Resource Development and Change and is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.
Bill Hook
Head of Claims
Bill joined Tawa in 2004 from PwC where he leads the claims team. Bill has over 30 years experience in the insurance industry having initially worked as an underwriter in 1971 for a composite insurer, moving to their reinsurance arm in 1979 where he undertook a claims supervisory role. In 1982 Bill joined CIGNA and subsequently became Claims Director for their European run-off operations. Within PwC he specialised in claims management and reinsurance disputes on behalf of a number of UK insolvencies including The Charter Re; The Independent and Black Sea & Baltic. He also provided claims consultancy services for a number of clients in the live market, including Lloyd's, and was responsible for the business development of the claims offering for the practice area in the firm.
Sangeeta Johnson
Head of Outwards Reinsurance
Sangeeta transferred to Tawa as part of theacquisition of CNA Re in October 2002 having joined the Group in 1993.
Having 20 years of experience in the insurance and reinsurance industry, Sangeeta has held a variety of positions within companies and brokers dealing mainly with all aspects of outwards reinsurance.
Cliff Chapman
Business Process Efficiency
Cliff joined Tawa in 2004 where he has responsibility for business process efficiency projects. With over twenty years' experience in the London Insurance Market, Cliff has worked within underwriters, brokers and process bureaux. These include Equitas, where he was responsible for the design and implementation of the business operations and systems. Subsequently, he founded a consultancy providing change and programme management in the commercial insurance sector.
A PRINCE2 practitioner Cliff has been involved in some of the largest and most complex change and systems programmes in the market.
Christopher Jones
Company Secretary and Compliance Officer
Chris transferred to Tawa following the acquisition of CNA Re in 2002 when he was appointed as Company Secretary and Compliance Officer of all Tawa UK group companies.
Prior to joining the Tawa Group, Chris was Group Company Secretary of Fenchurch Group plc a London Stock Exchange listed Lloyd's insurance broker and, following its acquisition by Lowndes Lambert, was appointed Group Company Secretary of the combined group.
Chris was appointed as Group Company Secretary of CNA Re's UK reinsurance subsidiaries, including CX RE (formerly CNA Reinsurance Company Ltd) in December 1997. He also served as Company Secretary and Compliance Officer of CNA Re's Lloyd's managing agency.
Chris is registered with the FSA in his capacity as CX RE's Money Laundering Reporting Officer.
Chris is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators.
Bill McConnell
Head of Actuarial
Bill joined Tawa in June 2002 and has nearly 30 years of actuarial experience in the financial services industry covering a wide variety of fields. He was Chief Actuary for a leading managing agent before leaving and becoming the first Lloyd's Actuary. Bill was the corporate general insurance actuary for Guardian Royal Exchange Group Limited where he was responsible for ensuring that the reserving standards of the group met certain minimum requirements. He was also responsible for reporting to the executive committee on the reserves and underlying volatility of those reserves for the group. While working on the life side he became a member of a committee that was charged with the responsibility for redrafting the SORP on Accounting for Life Profits. Bill is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries.
Marvin Mohn
General Counsel
Marvin joined Tawa in 2001 and is General Counsel for Tawa, Tawa Management, CX RE, and KX RE. Before joining Tawa, he was with PwC for 18 months, prior to which he worked as an attorney specialising in insurance and reinsurance matters with Chadbourne & Parke, LLP. Marvin's experience centres on insurance regulatory, transactional, and litigation matters including eCommerce issues, insurance insolvency, reinsurance and insurance coverage disputes, licensing of companies and agents, surplus-lines regulation, captive insurers, and service contracts. Marvin is a Member of the State Bar of California and received a J.D. cum laude from the University of California, Hastings College of Law in 1991.
Steve Street
Head of Commutations
Steve joined Tawa in 2003 and has over 25 years of experience in insurance and reinsurance. His career commenced in the late 70's at Marsh where he held various claims positions and placed international reinsurance business into the London Market. In 1987 he became a divisional director at Aon, heading up the International Reinsurance Claims Division and was promoted to director in 1989. During 1995 he joined Aon's newly created Claims Consultancy Division as a senior director responsible for business development and international clients. In 1998, Steve joined CNA Global Resource Managers ("GRM") as senior vice president and director for claims and reinsurance. In 2001 he was promoted to managing director, joining the boards of the various companies managed by GRM. It was at GRM that Steve initiated the first solvent scheme for a pool of companies.