Assured Guaranty Ltd., the holding company for direct bond insurers Assured Guaranty Corp. and Assured Guaranty Municipal Corp., has named Nicholas Proud as senior managing director, international.

Mr. Proud will report directly to Séan McCarthy, chief operating officer of Assured Guaranty Ltd., and will head the company's international credit enhancement business.

Mr. McCarthy said: "Having headed Assured Guaranty's European structured finance business for the past eight years, we know that Nick is the right person to help us build our international presence in the global structured finance and public infrastructure markets.

"Nick has 18 years of experience in European structured finance, deep market knowledge and strong client relationships. We are confident he will help us to bring best-in-class credit enhancement products to these markets as they recover.

"Nick succeeds Philippe Tromp, who headed Assured Guaranty (Europe) Ltd., formerly Financial Security Assurance (UK) Ltd., for over 15 years and assisted in the integration of the company's London-based subsidiaries. We thank him for his strong contributions to our business as he leaves to pursue new interests."

Mr. Proud said: "I am excited to take on this additional responsibility. As the only highly-rated, long-standing financial guaranty companies writing new business today, I believe we have strong opportunities ahead and a great team to serve the markets."

Mr. Proud joined Assured Guaranty (UK) Ltd. from QBE Insurance & Reinsurance (Europe) Ltd. in January 2001, where he was a director and senior underwriter in its financial risks operations. Prior to that, he was executive director of the structured financial risks division of Special Risk Services Ltd., a financial products reinsurance broker.

Earlier positions included credit underwriting of facultative and treaty reinsurance of monoline financial guaranty companies. He holds a BA with Honors degree from the Royal Holloway & Bedford New College of the University of London.