Guarantee Agency (MIGA) has been hired as chief underwriting officer of Sovereign Risk Insurance Ltd., the Bermuda-based political risk underwriting agency.

Leigh Hollywood, 57, has been underwriting political risk for more than two decades, most recently as MIGA's senior underwriter, where he was their first employee.

MIGA was founded by the World Bank in 1988 to encourage private sector investment in developing nations and Mr. Hollywood was instrumental in building MIGA into a leading political risk insurance agency.

Sovereign Risk was formed in April to underwrite political risks on behalf of ACE Insurance Co. Ltd. (ACE), X.L. Insurance Co. Ltd. (XL) and Risk Capital Reinsurance Reinsurance Co. (RCRe).

Soveregn Risk president and CEO, Price Lowenstein, said Mr. Hollywood "brings tremendous depth, experience and capability'' to the firm and will lend much assistance to the planned corporate growth.

Before MIGA, Mr. Hollyood was an investment underwriter for 11 years with Overseas Private Investment Corporation, the US government's political risk agency, which insures US corporate investment in developing nations.

While 81 percent of Sovereign Risk is split equally between ACE and XL, RCRe has a nine percent ownership and the remaining ten percent is owned by Sovereign employees.