Lloyd’s underwriter OAK Global, has launched a new operation specifically to address the rising risks across the climate & technology ecosystem.

OAK Horizon will access capacity from OAK Global’s existing Lloyd’s syndicates with Tom Dickson appointed the operation’s CUO alongside his existing role as President, Innovation Strategies.

Risk products will include catastrophe protection for evolving natural perils, parametric solutions, innovative energy and power financing and performance, technology aligned asset protection and public sector partnerships.

Cathal Carr, Founder, CEO and Group CUO of OAK Global said the opportunities in the new risk classes are and will be significant.

“The intersection between climate and technology will drive significant opportunity across the risk landscape over the coming decades,” he explained. “From a climate resilience perspective, technological and data advancements enable enhanced pricing and structuring of evolving weather risk transfer, supporting (re)insurance penetration to reduce the protection gap through traditional and parametric solutions. Technological innovation can drive increased efficiency in addressing the energy and power needs of an evolving global economy, with the opportunity to enhance energy security and mitigate reliance on higher cost and finite legacy systems.”

“In addition to advancing risk solutions, technological innovation will also introduce challenges as we consider the needs of next generation engineered assets, such as data centres, and the risk uncertainty associated with nascent technologies such as nuclear fusion.”

“OAK Horizon takes a systems-based approach to this ecosystem of growing demand to partner with our clients, create value for our investors and support economic resilience.”

Carr said OAK Horizon has been created with a dedicated leadership and expertise to deploy this framework, while also leveraging broader capability across the OAK Global group, to underwrite climate & technology-related reinsurance and portfolio insurance risk.

“OAK Horizon will seek capital partnerships to enhance its offering to clients, while leading wider collaboration across the risk community.”

Dickson explained: “OAK Horizon delivers a compelling proposition for our clients and partners, including brokers, insurers and MGAs. It brings together a unique set of specialists with underwriting expertise to structure innovative solutions to support challenging risks in this space, opening up placement opportunities that would not otherwise be possible. OAK Horizon converts the challenges presented by the inter-connected risks of climate & technology into opportunities and embodies the spirit of innovation in underwriting that has always attracted brokers and buyers to the Lloyd’s market.”