Sector developments and company hires

ILS efforts beefed up
AXIS Capital Holdings has appointed Chris Caponigro as global head of AXIS ILS, as its third-party capital unit has been rebranded. Caponigro will oversee the company’s activities related to third-party capital under management, supporting ILS efforts across its reinsurance and insurance segments. He will report to AXIS Re ceo Steve Arora and be based out of the company’s New York and New Jersey offices.

Caponigro has extensive ILS and investor experience, combined with a technical background in underwriting. Prior to joining AXIS, he served as head of business development at Mt Logan Re/Everest Re, where he led investor relations and global capital fundraising responsibility for the private capital arm of Everest. Previously, he served at Platinum Underwriters Bermuda and St Paul Re.

In other news…

EMEA
Eric Wragge, md and head of Northern Europe ABS at JPMorgan, is set to leave the bank. In the near term at least, he will focus on developing Rochester Square - a derelict garden nursery site in central London – into a community arts space that he founded with his wife. Wragge joined JPMorgan in 2000 as an associate, moving into CLO structuring in 2001, followed by a number of other structured credit-related roles.

North America
Nate Weber has joined Mizuho as md, based in New York. He was previously a director in BMO Capital Markets’ CLO trading and origination team. Before that, he worked at Nomura, Barclays and Lehman Brothers in structured credit roles.