Aon takes Swiss Re’s Cole Mayer to manage global parametric offering

Aon has announced the hiring of Cole Mayer from Swiss Re, with the executive joining the broker to lead a global center of excellence for parametric products, reporting to Aon Securities CEO Paul Schultz.

Cole Mayer joins Aon as Head of Parametric and the company wants to “accelerate the adoption of index-based cover” with a move to establish a global center of excellence for parametric products.

Managing this new center, Mayer will be tasked with coordinating the structuring and distribution of parametric risk transfer, insurance and reinsurance products across Aon’s solution lines and regions.

Mayer will lead a team of specialists in parametric risk transfer across North America, EMEA and Asia Pacific to identify opportunities and utilize synergistic expertise across the Aon group.

This will include across Reinsurance Solutions and Commercial Risk Solutions, as well as Aon Securities, the insurance-linked securities (ILS) and catastrophe bond focused unit, delivering parametric products to clients while utilising capital from diverse markets.

Schultz commented on the news, “As a firm, we have long recognized that parametric products can be used not just by insurance and reinsurance companies, but also commercial organizations, especially those with extensive asset portfolios that are exposed to potential natural hazard events. With Cole leading our global parametric efforts, we are reinforcing our commitment to deliver additional capital to our clients across the firm at a time when many are facing capacity constraints in traditional markets when seeking coverage for their unique exposures.”

Mayer was most recently a senior vice president and senior structurer within Swiss Re’s Innovative Risk Solutions division.

Andy Marcell, CEO of Risk Capital for Aon, added, “There is increasing demand from commercial risk and reinsurance clients for innovation around risk transfer, and so to continue to deliver client value Aon needs to be ever more coordinated in its global network and approach. Cole’s new role evidences our quick progress in this regard, enabling the more efficient delivery of parametic solutions through global collaborative initiatives.”

Lambros Lambrou, CEO of Human Capital and Commercial Risk Solutions for Aon, also said, “Having a unified capability will enable us to offer an increasing range of robust parametric solutions to address a wide variety of exposures across the Risk and Human Capital spectrum. This area is heralding an evolution in risk transfer, and we are excited to see how it will develop through the efforts of our center of excellence for parametric products.”