Legacy specialist DARAG Group Ltd has appointed Ciaran Russell as senior actuary in DARAG North America, the company’s Bermuda and US arm.

The company said Mr Russell, who is based in Bermuda, worked most recently as an actuary at ILS Investment Management on the island where he had direct experience with legacy transactions, having prior to this worked for seven years at Aspen, performing roles including product and pricing actuary.

The hiring of Mr Russell was among five senior appointments made by the DARAG Group, which said the hires “further broaden out the group’s capabilities and support its continued progress towards becoming a highly focused, competitive and data driven legacy company with reach across Europe and North America”.

Alastair Lauder was appointed group chief actuary, Vivek Bhandari was hired as head of data, Matt Watson becomes group head of IT, and Alastair Whitfield joins as group head of investments.

Tom Booth, group CEO of DARAG, said: “As DARAG continues to expand globally, these senior hires reflect the successful growth and maturity of the group as well as its ambition and innovation.

“These highly experienced and skilled staff will lead the continued development of our actuarial, data, IT and investment functions as we move beyond the initial scale up phase of the business.”

He added: “This new talent will serve to enhance our competitiveness as well as cement our reputation as a well-resourced global legacy player with an enviable blend of industry experience and data led innovation.

“DARAG now benefits from a significant balance sheet, ready access to growth capital and the ability to transact across key territories.

“We expect our full platform build out to be complete by year end, making the Group one of only a few legacy players able to provide the entire suite of solutions across Europe, North America and the UK.

“DARAG has built up a substantial, well diversified and medium tail portfolio since its recapitalisation three years ago, reinforced by strong risk metrics, underwriting discipline and expert claims management. Our future growth will be built upon those same foundations.

“It is a testament to what the business has achieved in recent years, its controlled ambition and outlook in an attractive segment of the insurance market, that we have attracted such high calibre senior personnel to help continue the growth of DARAG into a highly respected and competitive mid-market legacy player.”