Lodgepine CEO Barnard and President Slade depart Markel

Andrew Barnard and Brent Slade, the two most senior executives from Lodgepine Capital Management Limited, the in run-off start-up retrocession investment manager owned by Markel Corporation, are departing the company.

Markel launched Lodgepine Capital Management in late 2019 as a new insurance-linked securities (ILS) fund strategy for the company, focused on the retrocessional reinsurance space.

It was seen as an opportunity to capitalise on demand for retrocession in a challenged marketplace and also to reset after the issues faced at the Markel CATCo unit.

But Lodgepine faced a particularly challenging start and was shuttered by Markel in 2021.

With Markel also shifting its own catastrophe reinsurance business to its ILS manager Nephila Capital, the parent company is no longer active in the catastrophe underwriting space.

Andrew “Barney” Barnard” was CEO of Lodgepine and had worked at Markel for more than a decade with a focus on reinsurance and catastrophe retrocession.

Prior to taking on the CEO role at Lodgepine, Barnard had been Head of International Property Catastrophe & Retro at Markel.

With catastrophe reinsurance now falling under Nephila and retrocession activity diminished with the shuttering of Lodgepine, we expect Barnard will find a new home at another player given his years of expertise in a sector which currently presents opportunity for a lot of firms.

Jed Rhoads, President and Chief Underwriting Officer, Markel Global Reinsurance, commented on Barnard’s departure, “We are grateful for Andrew Barnard’s commitment, dedication, and leadership within Markel Global Reinsurance over the years. We thank him for his many contributions.”

Also leaving the Markel group of companies is Brenton “Brent” Slade, who joined Lodegpine as President in 2019.

Slade joined Markel after a number of years running Hamilton Insurance Group’s third-party capital arm, Hamilton Capital Partners.

Prior to that, Slade worked at ILS and reinsurance specialist service provider Horseshoe Group where he led global business operations as COO, before which he worked at Flagstone Reinsurance as a member of the executive committee and chief marketing and capital markets officer.

Slade, whose departure a Markel spokesperson confirmed to us, is equally experienced and a specialist in insurance-linked securities (ILS) and reinsurance capital markets.

Markel seemingly did not have a new role for these industry leaders, which has led to their departing the firm.

We understand other departures are likely from Lodegepine and that as Markel CATCo also winds down there will be additional people leaving the company, as Markel itself has adjusted its catastrophe reinsurance and retro focus over recent years, leaving fewer opportunities to retain such experienced staff.

It’s an interesting time in the market for these leaders to become available, as there are numerous companies looking more positively at the opportunities in the catastrophe, retro, and capital markets segments of reinsurance at this time.