Verisk’s head of Life & Health, Jeff Cook, has relocated to Singapore, bringing him closer to insurers and partners across Asia, the business said.
“Having senior leadership based in Singapore strengthens our ability to support those ambitions with local insight, regional expertise and solutions designed for the realities of the market,” said Iain Howie, managing director of international underwriting at Verisk.
Cook first moved to the business in February 2023. Before joining Verisk, he held senior roles with Pacific Life Re, including as head of Southeast Asia marketing, product development and alternative distribution in Singapore.
He brings more than 30 years of insurance experience and has spent around 15 years working in Asian insurance and reinsurance markets. Earlier in his career, he spent more than nine years with Swiss Re in underwriting, strategy and operations roles across Singapore, Hong Kong and the UK.
From Singapore, Cook will continue to oversee Verisk’s Life & Health business and its international underwriting solutions.
“Being based in Singapore allows me to work more closely with insurers and reinsurers across the region, helping them apply data, analytics and underwriting expertise to make confident risk decisions and expand access to coverage,” Cook noted, commenting on the move.
Separately, the catastrophe modelling firm, in its latest report, flagged the massive protection gap in Asia vis-à-vis catastrophe coverage. Asia generates approximately US$10bn of average annual insured losses from natural catastrophes, compared with US$71bn of average annual economic losses, leaving an annual protection gap of roughly US$61bn.
