John “Jay” Nichols will join Axis Capital Holdings Ltd from Bermuda rival RenaissanceRe to take the role of chief executive officer of Axis Re effective April 2, 2012, Axis announced last night.Mr Nichols will report to the CEO and president of AXIS Capital, and will assume responsibility for the leadership and management of all reinsurance business units. He will also serve as a member of Axis Capital’s Executive Committee.Mr Nichols is the former president of RenaissanceRe Ventures Ltd where he and his team were responsible for business development and management of RenaissanceRe’s Joint Ventures and Venture Capital businesses.In his role at RenaissanceRe, Jay was responsible for the formation of DaVinci Reinsurance and Top Layer Reinsurance, as well as several sidecars and other ventures.Prior to joining RenaissanceRe in 1995, Jay held various positions at Hartford Steam Boiler, Monarch Capital and the accounting firm of Matson, Driscoll and D’Amico.Axis Capital CEO John Charman said: “Jay is an outstanding long-time reinsurance industry professional with an excellent reputation. I am delighted he has chosen to join our senior management group as CEO of AXIS Re and in doing so recognises the enormous potential of our global reinsurance platform.“My colleagues and I very much look forward to working with him to leverage Axis Re’s existing strengths and further develop its capabilities, as well as those of our global franchise.”Mr Nichols said: “I look forward to playing a leadership role at Axis, and am energised to build value for all of our stakeholders through the continued development of the global reinsurance platform. This is an exciting time to re-enter the reinsurance business and I am honoured to be doing so with this extremely talented and dedicated team.”