Aurenity on course to go live in Q3 as Trainor confirmed CUO

Aurenity has confirmed Douglas Trainor as CUO as the tech-enabled MGA prepares to begin underwriting its initial excess casualty product in the third quarter, The Insurer can reveal.

The E&S-focused firm launched earlier this year with former Brit executive and current Agman operating partner Nick Davies as CEO. It has backing from Chicago-based Agman with $10mn of seed funding.

Davies told this publication Aurenity’s build-out is “on track”, with a number of key technology partnerships signed and the capacity for its initial excess casualty product close to completion.

The MGA has also appointed Guy Carpenter to place its reinsurance program.

As previously revealed by this publication, the start-up hired Pat Safino from Travelers as COO and Janet Beaver from Tokio Marine as executive vice president to launch the excess casualty offering.

Aurenity had also been linked with a move for Davies’ former Brit Americas colleague Trainor, who was most recently head of casualty and professional lines and executive vice president before resigning late last year.

Davies has confirmed to this publication the appointment of Trainor as CUO, with the executive to be based in the start-up’s new West Hartford, Connecticut office.

“I worked with Doug for many years, and we are delighted to welcome him to our management team. He has the technical underwriting experience and strong distribution credentials imperative to the expertise-led and tech-enabled MGA we are building,” said Davies.

Trainor’s previous role spanned general liability, excess casualty, cyber, miscellaneous professional liability and public entity, and he has also held positions with Catlin and The Hartford.

As previously reported, the MGA will initially target casualty and professional lines products where there is dislocation between market and technical price and demand outstrips supply because of exposure and experience inflation, said the start-up in a statement confirming the launch.

Aurenity says it is blending “market-leading talent with cutting-edge underwriting analytics” to deliver a new MGA for the E&S market. The combination will allow the tech-enabled platform to deliver sustainable profit for its carrier partners and best-in-class service for its brokers across the market cycle, it says.

“Underwriting performance and distribution scale are not mutually exclusive, we believe they should be symbiotic with the right view of risk,” according to the MGA.