RSG hires E&S and specialty heavyweight Clark

Ryan Specialty Group (RSG) has appointed former Nationwide E&S and specialty insurance executive Tom Clark as executive vice president.

Clark recently announced his retirement from Nationwide, where he served as president of its E&S and specialty business.

He joined Nationwide in 2014 as senior vice president and was promoted to president in December 2015.

Prior to joining Nationwide, Clark served as senior vice president of field operations for Allied Insurance.

Other past roles include serving as a commercial lines executive for the mid-Atlantic region of Fireman’s Fund as well as positions at Treiber Group, Clarendon National Insurance Company and Cigna Corporation, where he started his career.

He will begin his role with giant wholesale broker and underwriting platform RSG on 1 March.

Clark will be responsible for developing trading relationships with both retail brokers and carriers, working on behalf of RT Specialty and the delegated authority business units within RSG Underwriting Managers (RSGUM).

Pat Ryan, founder, chairman and CEO of RSG, said: “We are looking to Tom to continue accelerating our unprecedented growth, developing new products and deepening client and carrier relationships throughout RSG.”

Clark’s hire builds on a pre-existing strategic relationship between RSG and Nationwide.

In May 2019, the two companies announced a strategic partnership to grow in the specialty lines market while expanding upon the existing relationship shared by RSG and Nationwide. That partnership includes a 50-50 joint venture that created a new Bermuda-based reinsurance company, Geneva Re.

In December 2019, RSG Underwriting Managers’ yacht insurance subsidiary Safewater Underwriting Managers announced a new delegated authority underwriting agreement with Nationwide to provide tailor-made yacht insurance solutions.

And this was followed in August last year by a delegated authority underwriting agreement between RSGUM subsidiary Trident Marine Managers and Nationwide E&S to provide recreational marine and marine equipment insurance solutions, along with workers’ compensation.

RSG has unveiled a series of expansive moves over the past year, most notably a deal to acquire its smaller rival All Risks, a move first revealed by The Insurer last June.

An earlier version of this article incorrectly reported that Clark had been hired to head up E&S and specialty operations at RSG. We are happy to provide this clarification.