AVP, Corporate Development

Bull & Company, LLC; Dallas (TX); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 320,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Relocation assistance

Job summary

Bull & Company, LLC seeks an experienced actuary to serve as Assistant Vice President, Corporate Development, reporting to the VP of Corporate Development. The role focuses on identifying, evaluating, and pursuing strategic reinsurance and M&A opportunities, building a pipeline of partnerships, and guiding the lifecycle from sourcing to integration.

The incumbent will develop sophisticated financial models, analyze market trends, and communicate findings to the Executive Leadership Team.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of actuarial/finance experience in corporate development or capital management.
• Experience evaluating reinsurance/M&A opportunities and building business cases.

Responsibilities

• Spearhead pipeline development for strategic partnerships and reinsurance opportunities.
• Support lifecycle management from sourcing to due diligence, valuation, negotiation and integration.
• Develop advanced financial models and market analyses to validate business cases.
• Prepare insights and recommendations for Executive Leadership and Board-level reporting.

Skills

Financial modeling

Reinsurance

M&A

Strategic partnerships

Stakeholder management

Education

FSA/ASA or actuarial designation

Tools

Excel

Financial software

Job description

ATTENTION: Highly visible Reinsurance/M&A/Capital opportunity with enterprise impact and Senior Management exposure

My firm has been retained on an exclusive search for a highly motivated, high-performance actuary to assume the brand-new role of Assistant Vice President, Corporate Development, reporting to our client's VP of Corporate Development.

The Assistant Vice President, Corporate Development will be a thought partner both to the Head of Capital Management and to the newly hired Vice President of Corporate Development (as of November) in helping to identify, evaluate, and select reinsurance/M&A opportunities and actions. Specifically, the incumbent will assist in building and maintaining a pipeline of strategic partnerships and reinsurance opportunities through proactive efforts and inbound interest; support the management of the reinsurance/M&A lifecycle, from sourcing and due diligence to valuation, negotiation, and final integration; develop sophisticated financial models and perform market analyses to support and validate business cases; and, help identify industry trends and competitive landscapes to support long-term strategy.

The Corporate Development function is part of the broader Capital Management function, a very small, collaborative team currently leading Treasury cash management end to end and capital analytics and reporting (including overseeing risk-based capital reporting, rating agencies, banking, and broker relationships). The Corporate Development team, currently 4 staff, raises inorganic capital, explores transactions largely in the reinsurance space, along with partnerships, securitizations, financial reinsurance, and nonproportional reinsurance.

For the experienced, ambitious actuarial candidate, this opportunity is compelling and quite rare due to the:

High Visibility:

Because the work of the nascent Capital Team is of crucial importance to the company, the Executive Leadership Team and Board of Directors are highly attentive and invested in the team. The Assistant Vice President, Corporate Development’s visibility extends throughout the organization:

• Participating in the leadership and coordination of up to 40-person deal teams across Finance, Legal, Operations, Investments, Accounting, Product Pricing and Modeling, and other departments throughout the deal process.
• Assisting in building stakeholder relationships with external partners.
• Supporting the presentation of detailed business findings and guidance to Executive Leadership and Board-level reports.

Timing = Influence:

Our client specifically pursued, recruited, and hired a highly accomplished Head of Capital Management two years ago to build and architect the capital team of the future, including establishing a Corporate Development function and leading the overall capital raise infrastructure. For the candidate excited to “build the plane as you’re flying it,” the Assistant Vice President, Corporate Development will help do exactly that - cultivate influence and bring insights and ideas to help shape the buildout of this team and the company's approach to capital management in real time.

Core Purpose and Impact:

Our client is a mutual company that is very proud of their 150+year history serving their middle market policyholders. Since they does not have shareholders, they answer to Main Street, not Wall Street. While a number of for-profit insurers and private equity/PE-backed organizations are assembling Corporate Development functions to raise capital to offset losses or otherwise shore up their balance sheets for subsequent acquisitions, often operating from a “defensive” position in a desire to do deals, our client is in very strong financial shape. This is not an acquisitive-at-all-costs organization focused on doing Reinsurance/M&A deals for the sake of doing deals simply to boost AUM. They are playing offense, looking ahead to match the capital velocity of existing embedded balance sheet growth to keep their promises for when policyholders need them.

But wait, there’s more. Our client wants to be a top 5 insurer in the nation, and they can’t get there without capital. So, the Assistant Vice President, Corporate Development will help pave the way for the growth they’ve set their sights on. According to the Head of Capital Management:

• “In 2015, our statutory balance sheet was $20B. Today, it is $45B. Our stat capitalization in that 10-year period went from $2B to $4B. Think about that. The company accumulated $2B of total adjusted capital after 166 years. In the subsequent 10 years, we doubled to $4B! We achieved that capitalization with a couple of important transactions, including a recent fund raise/ reinsurance transaction which raised significant Statutory capital for us. Even more significant is that we write a lot of flexible premium products, growth is embedded in our balance sheet even if we don’t increase sales. We expect that by 2030, we need to capitalize the company from $4B to $8B. In the last 10 years, we raised $2B; and we are now looking at raising twice that amount in half the time. Bottom line, our capital velocity must keep pace with our growth, and we will achieve this holistically through strategy transactions and partnerships.”

This opportunity is based either in New England or Dallas metro area, with 4 days in office and 1 optional day at home. Generous relocation assistance and timeline are provided (if out of market).

The position offers a commensurate compensation and benefits package.