Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance’s (BHSI) Australia and New Zealand operation continues to bring in senior executives from big-name competitors.

Its latest recruits are Dimitry Zilberud as Head of Marine, Cameron Holmes as Construction Manager and Daniel Vaughan as Chief Actuary.

Mr Zilberud has two decades of marine underwriting experience, including spells as marine underwriting manager for Australasia at HDI-Gerling and for NSW and Queensland at Ace.

Mr Holmes is an engineer who was previously national manager construction and engineering at IAG and also spent three years in the UK as underwriting manager engineering for Munich Re.

Mr Vaughan was most recently actuarial manager at QBE and previously worked in consulting at KPMG.

In June BHSI appointed AIG’s Asia-Pacific regional head of healthcare Tony Bainbridge as Head of Healthcare Professional Liability in Australia.

BHSI was granted its Australian operating licence in April and New Zealand licence in June.

Australasia President Chris Colahan says the business has so far recruited 38 people from 13 different companies in Australia and New Zealand.

“We have attracted a very high-calibre group of people,” he told insuranceNEWS.com.au. “We’ve been very fortunate to be able to hire the people we want.

“We have the perfect combination on offer: the Berkshire Hathaway brand, the financial backing and the opportunity to be part of an exciting start-up – it’s what attracted me and it’s also resonated with everyone we’ve approached.”

BHSI started underwriting marine insurance in Australia and New Zealand last week.

“We are taking a flexible approach to marine risks… to provide tailored solutions for customers and brokers navigating these exposures,’ Mr Colahan said.

BHSI offers marine cargo, cargo stock throughput, carrier goods in transit, carriers’ liability and marine project cargo covers through its offices in Auckland, Sydney and Melbourne.

Mr Zilberud and Marine Manager Mark Dixon are based in Sydney.

Mr Dixon, one of the original local recruits for BHSI, was previously northern region marine underwriting manager at HDI-Gerling.