AXA XL Names Specialty Leader for Niche Business

Source: AXA XL | Published on January 7, 2022

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AXA XL Insurance has promoted Maria Duhart to lead its Specialty Niche insurance business in the Americas. Ms. Duhart steps into the role of Chief Underwriting Officer for Specialty Niche from her previous role as head of AXA XL’s Commercial Bonds business.

In her new role, Ms. Duhart reports to Donna Nadeau, Chief Underwriting Officer for the Americas and assumes multi-line underwriting management responsibility of AXA XL’s collective Specialty Niche insurance lines in the Americas which includes Political Risk, Trade Credit and Commercial Bonds; War, Terrorism and Political Violence; Fine Art & Specie, Leisure and Entertainment and Structured Risk Solutions.

Commenting on the appointment, Ms. Nadeau said: “Since joining us in 2017, Maria has led our Commercial Bond business, impressively growing this business and building a talented underwriting team. With more than 20 years of insurance, business strategy and finance experience, Maria is well prepared for her new responsibilities, already having a strong grasp of our specialty lines businesses and the respect of our brokers, reinsurers, and colleagues.”

Before joining AXA XL, Ms. Duhart served as Head of Commercial Surety at Nationwide. She also previously held the roles of Regional Commercial Surety Manager, Assistant Vice President – Surety and Senior Surety Underwriting Specialist at Chubb. She is a graduate from the Catholic University of Argentina and holds a Master’s in Business Administration from New York University.