RKH Specialty appoints Paul O’Neill as APAC CEO

RKH Specialty (“RKH”) today announced that Paul O’Neill is joining the company to take up the position of CEO of its thriving Asia Pacific region. Although O’Neill will join on 1 May 2020, he will assume the role once local regulatory formalities are finalised.

O’Neill, who was previously the Chief Underwriting Officer of Specialty at Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty (“AGCS”) and a member of the Board of Management, will be based in Singapore for this role, marking a return to the region where he previously worked as Regional Manager for Energy at AGCS from 2003 to 2007.

A chartered engineer, O’Neill began his career as a chemical engineer before moving into the insurance sector where he performed risk-engineering reviews for the London insurance market. While working at Lloyd’s, he transitioned into underwriting and since then, has worked across a number of senior leadership roles, culminating in the recent board role at Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty.

O’Neill’s appointment also enables incumbent APAC CEO Stuart Beatty to move to a new role as, Head of RKH Reinsurance Brokers APAC, with a remit to expand the company’s recently established and already successful reinsurance business in the region.

Commenting on his appointment, O’Neill said: “Looking at insurance products and services from a client’s perspective has been an important part of my previous roles. This is an exciting opportunity to work alongside the team at RKH Specialty. I am very much looking forward to being part of a business that balances its scale in global markets with the ability to be flexible and nimble in order to deliver results for clients.”

Paul Redgate, Deputy Chairman, RKH Specialty commented: “Paul will join us at a hugely exciting time as RKH and Howden come together to blend the full breadth and strength of our product expertise with our growing regional ambitions in Asia and beyond. We are focussed on making our distribution channels more accessible, more efficient and more effective for our clients and we will continue to invest in and strengthen resources to deliver this.”