Willis Re has appointed Neil Eckert, the cofounder and chief executive of Conduit Re, as its next CEO.

The appointment was announced the day after Conduit said Christian Dunleavy, a Bermuda market veteran and the former group president of Aspen Insurance Holdings, would succeed Mr Eckert on March 1 next year.

Mr Eckert will lead the global reinsurance broking and advisory business and join on completing his current contract, Willis Re said.

At Conduit, Mr Eckert will work with Mr Dunleavy and the team during the next six months to support the leadership transition. Mr Dunleavy will join Conduit’s board as an executive director upon becoming CEO, replacing Mr Eckert.

He brings about 40 years of experience in re/insurance and capital markets, including time as a broker and as a founder and leader of underwriting and risk-transfer businesses.

Mr Eckert cofounded Conduit Holdings, the Bermudian-based reinsurer, in 2020. The company raised $1 billion in what was then the largest London Stock Exchange initial public offering by a start-up. He was Conduit Re’s executive chairman before becoming CEO in 2025.

Earlier in his career, he began as a reinsurance broker at Benfield Group in 1986 and became a board member two years later. He later founded Benfield & Rea Investment Trust, which raised capital to support Lloyd’s and insurance-company underwriting capacity and was then relisted as Brit Insurance Holdings.

He also cofounded Climate Exchange, a carbon-emissions trading platform, and has held leadership roles in several environmental and climate-risk businesses. He is chairman of IncubEx, an environmental derivatives platform.

Lucy Clarke, a Willis Re board member, said: “It is such a privilege to have Neil joining as CEO of Willis Re. He is one of the most experienced, entrepreneurial, driven and technologically astute people in our industry.”

She added that his experience across broking, capital, technology and climate ventures would help the business respond to changing client and market needs.

Mr Eckert said he was joining at an important time for Willis Re.

“Having spent my career on both the broking and capital sides of this industry, I understand what clients and markets need from a broker: technical excellence, capital insight and the imagination to apply technology to genuinely improve outcomes,” he said.

Earlier, Mr Eckert said it had been “an absolute privilege” to lead Conduit and that the company had grown from a start-up into a respected reinsurance business in five years.