Industry veterans open reinsurance brokerage

SHELTON, Conn.--Insurance industry veterans Rod Fox and James N. Stanard have started a new reinsurance intermediary, Alpha Re, Mr. Fox said.

Alpha Re, which may change its name later, began operations on Feb 1. The company so far has focused on catastrophe business but is already expanding into other lines, Mr. Fox said.

"We expect to build a high-end, private boutique reinsurance brokerage firm and focus on a small group of clients, and provide a very high level of expertise and capabilities to those clients."

He did not disclose expected revenues for the operation.

Alpha Re now is headquartered in Shelton, Conn., but eventually will be based in Greenwich, Conn., Mr. Fox said. It also has offices in San Antonio and Minneapolis.

Messrs. Fox and Stanard are financing the privately held firm primarily through Greenwich, Conn.-based F&S Ventures, their privately held investment company, Mr. Fox said.

Late last year, the two announced they had set up a separate operation, New Asset Class Management, an underwriting management firm in Greenwich, Conn.

Mr. Fox, who previously was CEO of New York based Praetorian Financial Group Ltd. and a reinsurance brokerage executive before that, is chairman and chief executive officer of Alpha Re. Mr. Stanard will act as a consultant and advise Alpha Re's clients, but have no formal title, said Mr. Fox.

Mr. Stanard, who previously served as chairman and chief executive officer of Pembroke, Bermuda-based RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd., resigned in 2005 following regulatory investigations of the reinsurer. He faces civil fraud charges by the Securities and Exchange Commission in connection with a finite reinsurance deal completed by the reinsurer in 2001, and his case is pending, according to the SEC.

Another industry veteran, Ted Blanch Jr., formerly chairman and CEO of E.W. Blanch Holdings Inc., is vice chairman of Alpha Re.

Other partners in the firm, which has nine employees, include Larry LaMere, who built Dallas-based E.W. Blanch Holdings' backroom operation, said Mr. Fox. Also on board is Marc Lauricella, Praetorian's former chief marketing officer.

"We have formed a partnership with the BMS Group in London" to provide services including claims handling, contract writing, catastrophe modeling and a "London intermediary capability," Mr. Fox said.

Mr. Fox said one factor behind Alpha Re's formation is "some dislocation in the market with management changes at various brokers. There are brokers out there getting out of the business."

Another is "employees that want to work in a private firm rather than in a public firm. The brokerage business, frankly, is more conducive to a private firm, and we see clients that are looking for experienced capability from an advisory perspective," he said."I think it's well-understood that...most people can place transactions in this marketplace, but we think we can deliver a higher level of solutions to the customers out there."

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