Bermuda-based XL Re has announced the appointment of Craig Wenzel as senior vice-president, Capital Markets.In this newly created role, Mr Wenzel will be responsible for managing and developing relationships with third-party capital providers in support of XL’s global underwriting activities.XL has been involved in the property catastrophe reinsurance market for 20 years. XL was the sponsor for Cyrus Re, one of the first post-Hurricane Katrina sidecars — an example of early capital markets involvement in the reinsurance industry.Mr Wenzel joins from Deutsche Bank Securities Inc, where he was most recently a director in the Capital Markets and Treasury Solutions division in New York.During his tenure there he was responsible for coordinating the catastrophe product origination effort globally and executed numerous catastrophe bonds, sidecars and alternative capital and risk transfer solutions, including the Cyrus Re financing in 2005-2007.At XL, Mr Wenzel will report to Charles Cooper, president & chief underwriting officer of XL Re Ltd — XL’s Bermuda-based reinsurance operations. He will also work closely with XL’s chief financial officer Pete Porrino and will be based in the US.Commenting on the appointment, Mr Cooper said: “Capital market investors continue to show interest in the Insurance Linked Securities (ILS) market and are searching for innovative ways to access attractive non-correlated yields. Craig’s background in finance and the ILS market makes him the ideal person to lead XL’s continued advancement in the reinsurance/capital markets convergence space.”