Optio Group (Optio), the independent specialty MGA, today announced the appointment of Jamie Jeffers as managing director of Optio Asia, effective immediately. Based in Singapore, Jeffers will lead Optio's next phase of growth in Asia-Pacific, with a focus on expanding its underwriting capabilities and identifying new business opportunities.

Building on the established local operations of Circles Group, Optio intends to broaden its specialty offering, evaluate additional classes of business and deepen relationships with brokers, capacity providers and other market partners across the region.

Jeffers brings extensive experience in specialty insurance and underwriting leadership. Most recently at Canopius, where he served as head of credit and political risk, Asia-Pacific, and head of the global underwriting committee. In this role, he established and developed the regional credit and political risk business into a profitable operation and provided global oversight of a substantial international underwriting portfolio. Earlier in his career he held senior leadership roles at Willis Towers Watson and Westpac across insurance and banking, with a track record of building insurance businesses, managing complex underwriting portfolios and developing strong distribution relationships.

Deepak Soni, chief executive officer of Optio Group, said: “Asia-Pacific is a key market for us as we continue to build a broader specialty insurance platform. Circles Group provides an established regional platform from which to develop new capabilities and bring more of Optio's underwriting expertise to clients and partners across Asia-Pacific.

Jamie has a proven track record of building successful businesses and leading high-performing underwriting teams. His experience, local market relationships and disciplined approach will be invaluable as we grow across the region.”

Jeffers added: “I’m delighted to be joining Optio at such an exciting stage of its development. Asia-Pacific offers significant opportunities for a specialty platform with the right underwriting expertise, distribution network and capacity partnerships. Thanks to Circles Group, we already have a strong foundation in the region. I look forward to working with our teams, partners and clients to broaden our offering and build a sustainable, profitable business for the long term.”