Steadfast has appointed key executives to its International team as it expands in the US, while the company also told the annual general meeting today that first quarter trading conditions remained strong.

Finance Director Eimear McKeever has been appointed Steadfast International CFO and Nick McKee Steadfast International COO. The division is led by Steadfast International CEO Samantha Hollman, who took up the position in April.

Group CEO Robert Kelly told the meeting, held in Sydney and online, that Ms McKeever had been with Steadfast for 11 years and had been instrumental in building out the finance function during her time with the company.

Mr McKee has 23 years’ insurance industry experience based in New York and is now living in Sydney.

Previous roles he’s held include Marsh & McLennan Head of Strategy and Corporate Development and a senior role at CPP Investments, which invests Canada Pension Plan funds in financial services sectors including insurance, according to his LinkedIn page.

Steadfast said earlier this month that it had acquired ISU, one of the largest privately owned independent insurance agency networks in the US, for $US55 million ($87 million).

Mr Kelly told the meeting that ISU is a family run business with distribution over 40 states, and US insurers have confirmed it to be reliable and ethical. 

Apart from the range of services and systems transferrable to the ISU network, Steadfast has established that there’s strong interest in the roll out of its premium funding company and opportunities for its Insight back-office system and Steadfast Client Trading Platform.

Five Steadfast underwriting agencies will be introduced to the network and Mr Kelly said there was “keen interest” in the trapped capital project, which provides a new opportunity for members to sell down their stake.

“We will build North America the way we build Australia, slowly, methodically and not stepping outside our defined paradigms of how we go about doing things,” he said.

Steadfast reiterated its full-year earnings guidance following a strong September quarter.

Mr Kelly said first quarter unaudited underlying earnings before interest, tax and amortisation was 22.4% ahead of the same period last year and underlying net profit was 15.3% ahead, with insurers continuing to increases premium rates due to the large recent catastrophes and higher claims inflation.,

“This together with sold volume growth has been a major contributor to our performance for the first quarter,” he said.

Mr Kelly, 76, who has previously said he won’t tender a required 12-month notice under existing employment arrangements before December 31, 2025, told the meeting that he was often asked about succession planning.

“I’m reminded that Hank Greenberg at 98 is still running Starr, I’ve got another 25 years to go,” he said, in reference to former AIG executive Maurice “Hank” Greenberg, who heads Starr Insurance Companies.

Mr Kelly said Steadfast had expanded its executive team and deepened the strength of its succession planning process, noting he had been asked if former local AIG CEO Nigel Fitzgerald, who joined the group in April as COO, had been brought in as his replacement.

“Nigel could replace me,” he said. “I guess when it gets to a time when I have to go, he’ll be one of the key assets that we will look to, to replace me. By the time that happens he may want to retire himself.”