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Member, Beacon International Group, Ltd.
Peter Middleton, the former CEO of Lloyd's of London who led the market during some of its most turbulent years, died on March 15, age 74.
Mr. Middleton joined Lloyd's as CEO in 1992 just as the market was reporting disastrous losses from catastrophe claims from the 1980s and long-tail liability losses related to U.S. asbestosis and pollution claims dating back decades.
Over the next three years, Mr. Middleton and Sir David Rowland, the then-chairman of Lloyd's, led cost-cutting and reconstruction efforts.
The period was also marked by extensive litigation by Lloyd's members, or names, the individuals who provided capital for Lloyd's syndicates and who pledged unlimited liability to support the market.
Prior to the emergence of long-tail pollution and asbestosis claims, membership in Lloyd's had largely been profitable for the members, but many of them faced ruin as a result of the claims that became due in the late 1980s and sued the underwriters and managing agents that ran loss-making syndicates.
Mr. Middleton took a more conciliatory approach with members than some previous leaders of Lloyd's, and the discussions ultimately resulted in the formation of Equitas Ltd., a company that took on the old long-tail liabilities of Lloyd's syndicates.
In 1995, Mr. Middleton surprised the market when he resigned to become CEO for the U.K. and Europe at London-based investment bank Salomon Bros.
Mr. Middleton trained as a monk as a young man and later also served as chairman of the U.K.'s Football League and CEO of the World Snooker Association.