In a move to re-establish its weather derivatives trading business Swiss Re Financial Products has hired Mark Tawney, former head of the weather derivatives desk at Enron in Houston, and a team of four other weather traders from the bankrupt power company, according to a Swiss Re official.
Along with Tawney, who will serve as the managing director of the new team, Swiss Re hired William Windle, head of origination and marketing, and traders Sandeep Ramachandran, Michael Nguyen, and William MacLauchlan. Windle is a senior v.p., Ramachandran, Nguyen, and MacLauchlan are v.p.s. Tawney reports to Phil Lotz, co-coo. The other team members report to Tawney.
"They're getting back into the trading business. That's obvious. It's a good thing for the market," said one U.S.-based weather broker. Swiss Re closed down its on-line weather derivatives trading business over a year ago and decided to concentrate solely on structuring deals that are in excess of USD10 million. The company decided about two years ago that structuring smaller deals was not an efficient use of its resources, (DW, 11/27/00). Nancy Jewell, spokeswoman at Swiss Re in New York, confirmed the moves, but declined comment about reentering the trading arena. Lotz did not return calls.
