Mosaic names Haque to lead alternative capital strategy

Mosaic, the global specialty insurer founded by Mitch Blaser and Mark Wheeler, is developing an alternative capital strategy, and has appointed its first Capital Solutions Officer to lead that charge.

Aizaz (Oz) Haque is stepping out of his CFO position at Mosaic and assuming the new position of Capital Solutions Officer, based in New York.

At the same time, Mosaic has announced the hiring of Reeva Bakhshi, who joins the leadership team and becomes the new Chief Financial Officer (CFO).

The move is partly aligned with ambitions to leverage alternative capital within the Mosaic business, it seems.

“We are excited to have Reeva join us as we embark on our next phase of growth,” Co-CEO Mitch Blaser explained. “She brings a distinguished track record in the insurance industry to oversee all our financial activities.

“Oz’s new role sees him address ways we can build alternative capital strategies to support our development and leverage the platform we’ve built.

“Having Reeva and Oz focused on these respective areas will help Mosaic deliver on plans and create innovative capital solutions for our business.”

Haque has more than twenty years of investment banking sector experience.

In his new role, he will be tasked with overseeing alternative capital strategies to optimise capital provision for Mosaic’s underwriting business.

As Mosaic scales its platform and operations, bringing in alternative sources of capital to add greater efficiency to its reinsurance capital needs, as well as to provide an efficient source of growth capital, makes sense for the company and there will be opportunities to achieve this through Lloyd’s, where Mosaic underwrites via Syndicate 1609, or potentially through the use of structures including catastrophe bonds.

“Mosaic has grown rapidly and entered a new phase where capital planning and risk finance become more significant,” Haque, a founding member of the company, said. “We welcome Reeva, and I look forward to focusing on taking our business to the next level.”

Bakhshi was previously an SVP, treasurer and the deputy CFO at Alleghany Corporation, and also a board member of TransRe, RSUI and CapSpecialty.

Before her time at Alleghany, she was CFO at Aspen Insurance and also CFO at Hiscox at a number of operations, including Hiscox Re & ILS, Europe, and Special Risks.

Bakshi has over 25 years’ experience in financial services, including international insurance and reinsurance markets and will lead Mosaic’s finance organisation, directing financial strategy, as the firm’s new CFO.

“I am thrilled to be joining Mosaic at such an important time in the company’s growth,” Bakhshi commented. “I am excited to be working with such an entrepreneurial and experienced team, and I’m enthused by the opportunity to drive Mosaic’s development to deliver value to our stakeholders.”

As any modern re/insurance underwriting business scales today, considerations of capital source and efficiency will tend to lead companies to look to alternative capital and to make preparations for how best to engage with third-party investors, ILS funds and other providers.