Liberty forms UK crisis management team

Liberty International Underwriters Europe has created a UK-based crisis management team as part of Liberty’s global crisis management capability.

LIU Europe will initially offer two core products – product recall and kidnap and ransom (K&R) – to the London market, the UK regions and Europe through underwriters Julie Ross and Natalie Lilley who each have 20 years’ experience in the insurance industry and significant expertise in crisis management, including product recall and K&R.

“We have started to see increasing numbers of violent incidents as a new criminal element has begun to enter the kidnap for ransom arena,” said Sean Rocks, LIU Europe’s chief executive. “This trend places greater importance on the quality and response rate of the company chosen as your crisis management consultant. Purchasing a K&R insurance policy is the only way to guarantee access to world class prevention, training, and response services.”

Liberty’s kidnap, ransom and extortion (K&R) service provider is NYA International (formerly Neil Young and Associates), a G4S company, which provides governments, international corporations and private individuals around the world with abduction, K&R prevention, training, and response services. Red24, a leading crisis management firm specializing in product contamination and product recall, with years of experience in food quality and safety, has been appointed by Liberty as its specialist in this area.

“The expertise of our London-based underwriters, combined with the rest of Liberty’s global crisis management team, will give clients truly leading crisis risk management capabilities,” added Rocks. “Expanding our team and our global presence gives brokers more resources for their clients to develop relevant strategies to help avoid and, if necessary, manage a major crisis.”