Obsidian hires former Maiden Re exec Stacy Armstrong

Expansive hybrid program fronting carrier Obsidian Insurance Holdings has added former Enstar and Maiden Re executive Stacy Armstrong as chief client officer, The Insurer can reveal.

According to sources, she will report to CEO Bill Jewett as part of the start-up’s management team and will focus on client and reinsurance relationships.

The role will be client facing as Obsidian works with MGAs and risk aggregators to which it will provide its paper and hybrid fronting services.

She is also expected to leverage her reinsurance relationships in the marketplace for the carrier, which will build out reinsurer panels to sit behind the programs it fronts for.

Armstrong was most recently executive vice president for underwriting, M&A and TPA management at Enstar’s advisory and consulting services unit Cranmore, based out of New York.

Before that she spent two decades at Maiden Re and its predecessor GMAC Re. She joined GMAC Re in 1998 from Zurich Re after starting out at St Paul Re.

Her most recent position at Maiden Re was executive vice president, broker treaty underwriting and new products, and she had previously been senior vice president and team leader for corporate underwriting.

Genstar-backed Obsidian officially launched at the end of March with $100mn of capital from the private equity firm and an A- financial strength rating from AM Best.

As a hybrid program fronting carrier, Obsidian will take up to 10 percent of the risk on programs it writes, ceding the rest to panels of reinsurers. It has admitted and non-admitted paper.

It has assembled a management team including former Endurance president Jewett as CEO, former Hanover Insurance Group executive Craig Rappaport as COO and Dan Larkin, formerly of Allianz, as CUO. Chief counsel Emily Canelo previously worked with Jewett at Endurance.

The carrier will look to be an economically and strategically aligned partner for larger risk aggregators, including retail brokers, wholesale brokers and large MGAs.

It will also target more “traditional” program business as it looks to build out its platform with a dual strategic focus.

In an earlier version of this article Stacy Armstrong was erroneously named as Stacy Campbell.