Senior Management

IGI’s senior management consists of individuals with vast international market expertise who have additionally demonstrated sustainable results in the specialist areas in which they operate.

IGI’s management team is as follows:

• Wasef Jabsheh, 

CEO & Vice Chairman

E-mail: wsj [at] iginsure [dot] com  

Mob: 00962 77 6300015

• Waleed Jabsheh, 

President

E-mail: waleedjabsheh [at] iginsure [dot] com 

Mob: 00962 77 6003002

• Soumitra Biswas,

Chief Financial Officer

E-mail: soumitrabiswas [at] iginsure [dot] com

Mob: 00962 77 6300017 

Wasef S. Jabsheh

A key figure in the Middle East region and founder of IGI, Wasef Jabsheh has specialized in marine and energy insurance for more than 40 years in various prominent roles with Kuwait Insurance Co. and with ADNIC from the mid 1970’s to late 80’s. In 1989, Wasef established Middle East Insurance Brokers and two years later founded International Marine & General Insurance Co. He also served as a Board Director with HCC Insurance Holdings Inc. until 1997.

Waleed W. Jabsheh

Waleed Jabsheh joined IGI in 2002 and has over 13 years experience in the reinsurance industry. He began his career at Manulife Reinsurance in Toronto, Canada and later joined LDG Reinsurance Corporation, a subsidiary of Houston Casualty Co. In his last year at LDG Re, Waleed was promoted to Senior Underwriter and was managing a USD 30 million book of treaty and facultative business. Waleed obtained an Honors Bachelors of Business Administration degree from Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.

Soumitra Biswas

Soumitra Biswas joined IGI in 2006 and has over 25 years experience on the financial side of the insurance industry. Soumitra obtained a Bachelor of Commerce with honors in Advanced Accountancy and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. Having held senior management positions with the Life Insurance Corporation of India, he moved to Abu Dhabi where he was appointed Assistant General Manager (Finance & Administration) of Al Khazna Insurance Company.

Peter Smith

Peter Smith has almost 30 years experience in the (re)insurance industry. He began his career on the broking side at Frank B.Hall & Company specializing in aviation business. He later joined HCC Insurance Holdings where he ultimately served as Executive Vice President and Director and was responsible for 4 insurance companies with premium income of over US$ 500 million and more than 500 employees. Over the last ten years, Peter has worked for El Paso Merchant Energy, Towers Perrin Reinsurance and before joining IGI established his own consultancy firm specializing in business development for investment groups and insurance organizations.

Graham Hensman

Graham Hensman has over 30 years international (re)insurance market experience encompassing management and underwriting in the London (re)insurance marketplace. Graham was most recently appointed to the position of Offshore Energy Underwriter and is also the Managing Director of North Star Underwriting Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of IGI Holdings. He had previously spent fifteen years with the Allianz Group, including six years as Underwriting Manager. His responsibilities included risk modeling, profiling and pricing. He has been a member of the London Market Joint Hull Committee and Joint War Committee, as well as a member and past Chairman of the Marine Technical Committee of the International Underwriting Association (IUA).

Simon Levy

Simon has worked within the reinsurance industry for 26 years, beginning in 1985 with D G Durham and subsequently for E. W. Payne (London). In 1996, Simon left the UK and worked for Alliance Re (laterally Flagstone Re) as an Underwriter concentrating on a WWX USA / Canada Proportional and Non Proportional inwards treaty portfolio. Simon joined IGI in 2010 and is responsible for underwriting and managing the inwards treaty reinsurance portfolio of IGI, whilst also working within the management team for group outwards.

Hatem Jabsheh

Hatem Jabsheh began his career in 2001 with Spear, Leads, and Kellog, a subsidiary of Goldman Sachs. He managed several pits as a CBOE and CME primary market maker. Hatem then moved to Amman, Jordan to set up Indemaj Brokerage, an asset management and brokerage company. After successfully selling it in 2009 to a publicly traded investment bank, Hatem joined IGI to head their investment department. He is a graduate of Marquette University.

Paul Squires

ACII qualified and a Chartered Insurer, Paul originally trained in property underwriting with Norwich Union before moving into business development with Eagle Star. After postings in the UK and Portugal, he moved to Saudi Arabia in 1994 joining NCCI becoming their Eastern Regional Corporate Accounts Manager. Crossing over to insurance broking in 1998, he headed up the Willis Saudi correspondent office including becoming account director for some of the Kingdom's largest commercial entities. Paul then joined Qatar Insurance Company as the AGM responsible for Overseas Operations before taking over as CEO of Marsh's Bahrain subsidiary in 2006. Paul joined IGI as Senior Executive Officer of their Dubai office in 2011 bringing 17 years senior management experience within the Middle Eastern insurance market.

Ashraf Asad

With over 16 years of experience in the IT and communications sector, Ashraf brings a wealth of knowledge both as a technical expert and as a successful projects leader and IT operations manager. Ashraf served in different industries including tourism (Dakkak Tours), insurance (ARIG) and cargo (CTI Group Inc.) where he worked for local and international companies in Jordan and was in charge of major IT projects in the Middle East, Europe and the Far East.

Adam Safwat

Adam has over 14 years experience in the reinsurance industry. He began his career as an accounts clerk for C.E Heath before moving to QBE in London where he specialized as a Treaty Reinsurance Underwriter for 13 years. Adam managed an international book of business with his expertise concentrated in Japan, Asia Pacific and the MENA region. Throughout his career, he has also been heavily involved with in-house modeling development as well as the implementation of best practice procedures. Adam joined IGI in June 2011.

Andrew Wood

Andrew has more than 20 years experience in the insurance and reinsurance industry, with significant expertise in Financial Institutions (FI). He was previously a FI underwriter with Lloyds Syndicate Hardy and before that with GE Frankona. He was also a Financial Institutions Divisional Director at Willis. Andrew joined the group in 2009.

Darren Shearwood

Darren has worked in the London Aviation Insurance market for over 20 years, bringing to IGI critical knowledge of regional exposures as well as broad relationships with production sources, ceding companies and aviation operations. He previously was a General Aviation Underwriter at Allianz and ACE Global Markets, travelling extensively to regions where IGI concentrates, with experience as a lead and following market.

Mark Cockayne

Mark has been involved in the Construction & Engineering environment for 20 years, working within the industry itself, as well as providing insurance solutions for the sector. He was previously an engineering underwriter at Gerling. Prior to being an underwriter, Mark developed solutions for Machinery Damage and Breakdown clients at Aon and was UK National Engineering Contracts Manager for heavy industry, gaining substantial Engineering and Contracts training.

Michael Farah

Michael has over 12 years extensive experience of providing internal audit and audit services to clients in Jordan and the Middle East. He has a Bachelors Degree in Accounting and is a US Certified Public Accountant. Michael joined IGI in 2011 after having worked with PricewaterhouseCoopers and Ernst &Young gaining a solid foundation in accounting and auditing particularly in the insurance industry.

Huib Van Zanten

Huib’s extensive experience within the insurance industry takes in almost 15 years of London market knowledge in various international companies consisting of AIG, ACE and HDI-Gerling. In 2011, Huib joined IGI Dubai as Casualty Underwriter for the MENA region helping to develop Casualty as a line of business within this emerging marketplace. With Huib’s vast knowledge, IGI is quickly establishing themselves as an important market in their MENA region.

Yuzri Yusof

Yuzri Yusof has more than 20 years of experience in the insurance industry beginning his career as a broker in 1989. After completing his CII Associate examinations in 1990, he joined Graham Miller as a loss adjuster. In 1992, he was appointed Energy Underwriter for Malaysia National Insurance. In 1997, he headed the Energy and Large Risks section of Takaful Malaysia, Malaysia’s 1st Takaful Operator for 10 years. Prior to joining IGI in 2007, he was head of General Takaful at another Takaful operator for about a year.