Zurich to beef up middle-market business with underwriter hires

Zurich North America said Tuesday it plans to add over 100 underwriting roles as it expands its U.S. middle-market business to additional geographies.

Zurich’s U.S. middle-market business is looking to hire or place underwriters in all regions, including the South, West, Midwest and the East, the Schaumburg, Illinois-based insurer said in a statement.

“Middle-market businesses are a growing force in the U.S. economy, and they aren’t concentrated in just a handful of the largest cities. We want to meet these businesses and their brokers where they are,” Alex Wells, head of U.S. middle market for Zurich North America, said in a statement.

Zurich’s middle-market business in the U.S. has seen double-digit growth since it was established as a separate business unit in 2020, according to the statement. It provides property/casualty, financial lines and specialty coverages to midsize businesses in construction, technology, manufacturing, life sciences, financial and professional services and other sectors.

Lisa Diers was named head of onboarding and development for middle market, Zurich said. Ms. Diers previously was middle-market head of underwriting quality and compliance.

Zurich Resilience Solutions will also add risk engineer positions to support middle-market businesses, Zurich said.

Zurich Insurance Group in December said it was targeting growth in middle-market and specialty coverages.

At its investor day presentation last November, Zurich committed to growing its middle-market business to more than $10 billion within three years from its current $7.5 billion.