US specialty insurer Markel has made more senior hires following the launch of its Australia business this month.

Ahmed Farag has joined as Head of Casualty while Kym Beazleigh fills the Head of Professional and Financial Risk (PFR) role and is also Head of Sydney.

Mr Farag was most recently Swiss Re Corporate Solutions Casualty Portfolio Leader, according to his LinkedIn.

Mr Beazleigh joins from Allied World, where he was Senior VP and Underwriting Head, Asia Pacific Professional Lines Division.

The insurer has also appointed Arné Booysen as Senior Underwriter, Professional Indemnity and he reports to Mr Beazleigh. Mr Booysen was also previously with Allied World as Assistant VP and Underwriting Manager, Australian Professional Lines Division.

Markel says the appointments of Mr Beazleigh and Mr Booysen mark the opening of its Sydney office.

Early this month the business appointed Stephen Rogers as Head of Queensland, reporting to Australia MD Rory Morison who is based in Melbourne. Markel is opening three offices in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne to spearhead its entry into the Australian market.

“The appointment of Ahmed and Kym to lead our Casualty and PFR practices is a clear and exciting signal to the Australian market that Markel intends to build a leading position over the long term,” Mr Morison said.

“Opening the Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney offices concurrently was a deliberate move to ensure our people are as close as possible to policyholders, and their brokers.”

Mr Morison tells insuranceNEWS.com.au the business aims to hire a Head of Claims by the end of the year.

“We felt it was very important for us to be able to service claims from Australia rather than outsourcing or offshoring,” he said.

Markel is focused at the moment on building the infrastructure for its business and that includes finding the right hires and establishing long-term distribution relationships.

“It's less about frantically trying to write business and much more about preparation and operationally getting ready,” Mr Morison told insuranceNEWS.com.au.

“We’re doing a little bit of insurance, we’re doing some policies with brokers but in a very low key, gentle [way]…just checking that our systems work because for us Australia is a new territory.

“It’s a very considered, deliberate, thoughtful rollout so that we can build momentum really into 2024.”

He says “lots of brokers want to deal with us and that's been a really positive response”.

“What we’re hearing consistently is that the brokers are excited to have another option, and what we’re at great pains to explain and make abundantly clear is this is a very serious play for Markel.”