Markel names new COO; reviews 2023
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Markel Group Inc. Monday named Mike Heaton chief operating officer of the Glen Allen, Virginia-based insurer.
Mr. Heaton, who will retain his existing title of executive vice president, most recently led the company’s change of holding company identity from Markel Corp. to Markel Group, a Markel statement said.
The newly created role is part of Markel’s “broader effort to establish a more formal holding company identity, structure, and team,” a Markel spokeswoman said in an email.
From 2016 to 2022, Mr. Heaton was president of Markel Ventures, the Markel unit that oversees its investments in various other companies. He will continue to report to Tom Gayner, CEO of Markel.
The move follows several changes in senior management at Markel over the past few months, including the departure of Teri Gendron, previously chief financial officer of the company, and Robert Cox, president and chief operating officer, global insurance operations, who both left Markel at the end of the 2023.
Meanwhile, in his annual letter to Markel business partners Friday, Mr. Gayner noted “several significant management changes and some tough decisions” in its insurance operations in 2023. The insurance division fell short of its financial goals last year, he said.
Among other things, Mr. Gayner noted that the unit’s “initial foray into underwriting and insuring collateralized intellectual property did not go well.”
Earlier this month, Markel recognized $65 million of credit losses related to fraudulent letters of credit that the company alleged it was provided by an affiliate of Vesttoo Ltd., the reinsurance brokerage that was forced into bankruptcy last year after information about the alleged fraudulent LOCs surfaced.
