Axis forms design professionals and environmental liability insurance unit

Axis Capital Holdings has announced that its Axis Insurance segment has formed a design professionals and environmental liability unit, which provides coverage for architects, engineers, contractors, consultants and other firms.

The new unit will be led by Richard Zarandona, who has recently joined Axis Insurance as executive vice president, Axis design professionals and environmental based in New Jersey, US.

Mr Zarandona has nearly 30 years of industry experience and most recently served as head of Arch Insurance Group's environmental and design professional division for eight years. Prior to that, he had been vice president and director of Zurich North America's architects and engineers and environmental consultants liability lines of business. He also formerly held senior management and technical positions within the risk management, engineering and construction fields.

Jack Gressier, chairman of Axis Insurance, said: "Rich shares our commitment to quality and our disciplined underwriting approach. With demonstrated ability building design professional and environmental liability businesses successfully over the years, he is establishing a team of highly experienced specialists and working to develop the products and strategies that we will need to grow profitably in these selected niche markets over time."