Heather Jamieson has labored alongside outgoing president Stephen Stewart since 2019.
Ryan Specialty has appointed Heather Jamieson (pictured) as president of Stewart Specialty Danger Underwriting (SSRU), efficient instantly.
Jamieson succeeds Stephen Stewart, who based the enterprise in 2016. Stewart will stay CEO of Ryan Specialty Canada via the tip of 2026, at which level Jamieson will take over that function too, efficient Jan. 1, 2027.
“Since founding SSRU in 2016, my aim has been to construct the corporate into what it has turn out to be at the moment, a number one underwriter of complicated business property and casualty enterprise in Canada,” Stewart mentioned. “I imagine the time is true for the following technology of management to information the enterprise ahead.” Miles Wuller, CEO of Ryan Specialty Underwriting Managers, referred to as the transfer “a considerate and pure succession plan.”
An inner promotion that issues for continuity
Jamieson isn’t new to SSRU. She has served because the agency’s senior vp of property and has labored alongside Stewart since 2019.
That inner continuity is important given what SSRU truly underwrites – severity-driven, high-hazard danger in pure sources, mining, industrial operations, vitality, manufacturing and specialty building, strains the place dealer and insurer buying and selling relationships constructed over years matter as a lot as underwriting capability itself.
Selling from inside SSRU’s current management, fairly than bringing in an outdoor govt, alerts Ryan Specialty is prioritizing precisely that type of relationship continuity via the transition.
Jamieson set to steer way over SSRU alone
The announcement understated the size of what Jamieson is definitely being positioned to run.
Ryan Specialty consolidated seven separate Canadian managing common underwriting companies, specifically, Alive Danger, International Particular Dangers, PERse, Ryan Transactional Danger, SSRU, Technical Danger Underwriters and Trident Marine Managers, below a single new holding firm, Ryan Specialty Canada Restricted, with Stewart named its first CEO earlier this yr.
When Jamieson takes over as CEO on January 1, 2027, she will not simply be operating SSRU’s high-hazard property and casualty e book; she’ll be overseeing that total consolidated platform spanning transactional danger, marine, energy and vitality, and technical danger underwriting alongside SSRU’s core specialty. Her SSRU presidency is greatest understood as the primary, most seen step in a broader govt transition Ryan Specialty has been constructing towards because it accomplished that Canadian amalgamation.
Why this issues for brokers putting complicated Canadian danger
For brokers working with SSRU on pure sources, vitality, mining or industrial danger particularly, this transition is designed to be operationally invisible within the close to time period. Stewart will stay concerned via year-end, and Jamieson has already labored immediately with the identical dealer and insurer buying and selling companions in her prior SVP function.
The extra related sign for brokers throughout Ryan Specialty’s broader Canadian platform is that management throughout all seven consolidated MGU items will converge below a single CEO in 2027 who got here up particularly via the specialty property underwriting aspect of the enterprise, a background that might form how Ryan Specialty Canada balances funding and strategic precedence throughout its completely different underwriting items as soon as that consolidation is full.