Arch reinsurance leadership just underwent its most consequential reshuffle in years, splitting command of the group’s two largest reinsurance carriers between separate chief executives on the same day. On July 9, 2026, Arch Capital promoted William Soares to CEO of Arch Reinsurance Ltd., its Bermuda-based reinsurance carrier, while Jon Schriber was named CEO of Arch Reinsurance Company, the group’s U.S.-based reinsurance operating entity — not a European unit. Both executives now report into a global reinsurance chief installed weeks earlier, cementing a three-region operating structure that cedents and brokers will have to learn.
Soares Takes Bermuda, Schriber Takes the U.S. — Same Announcement, Different Desks
The elevations give Arch two dedicated regional profit-and-loss centers in its core Bermuda and U.S. reinsurance markets, each now answering to its own named chief executive rather than a shared leadership layer. Soares said the new mandate would center on preserving the underwriting discipline and responsiveness that reinsurance clients expect while pursuing further growth, a message aimed squarely at cedents watching how quickly capacity commitments and treaty terms get decided once authority moves closer to each region. Arch’s own announcement, which lays out both executives’ expanded responsibilities in full, is available in the company’s statement detailing the Soares and Schriber promotions.
The timing matters: reinsurance buyers have spent 2026 watching leadership churn ripple through both brokers and carriers, including Willis Re’s own reshuffle, which put an Arch executive into a UK chair role, a reminder that regional specialization is becoming the industry’s default answer to complexity.
Halgan’s Global Reinsurance Build-Out Now Has Three Regional Legs
The regional split follows the June 17, 2026 appointment of Jerome Halgan as CEO of Arch’s Global Reinsurance Group, reporting to Arch President Maamoun Rajeh, a move that set the stage for Soares and Schriber to take on sharper, region-specific mandates underneath him. Arch’s investor relations announcement naming Halgan to the global reinsurance post also confirmed a parallel leadership change in Arch’s mortgage business.
Crucially, Bermuda and the U.S. are not the whole map. Arch’s European reinsurance underwriting unit has been led separately since June 3, 2025, when Pierre Jal was named President of Arch Reinsurance Europe Underwriting dac, more than a year before the latest moves. David Seyller serves as Chief Underwriting Officer of Arch Re Europe, overseeing its property and casualty, agriculture and structured underwriting teams across the continent, a structure Arch first laid out in its 2025 announcement promoting Soares, Jal and Seyller. With Bermuda, the U.S. and Europe now each carrying a named regional chief, Arch’s reinsurance arm effectively runs three separate P&Ls under Halgan — a structure comparable to how Aon has split EMEA leadership between co-CEOs to sharpen regional accountability.
Q1 Numbers Explain Why Underwriting Discipline Is the Watchword
The reorganization arrives as Arch’s reinsurance segment shows signs of pulling back on volume while protecting margin. Gross premiums written by the reinsurance segment totaled $3.41 billion in the first quarter of 2026, down 2.3% from the same period in 2025, and net premiums written fell more sharply, down 6.0% year-over-year to $2.18 billion, according to Arch’s first-quarter 2026 results release. Softer volumes have not dented profitability: the segment produced $441 million of underwriting income on a 75.9% combined ratio in the quarter, comfortably in profitable territory.
That combination — shrinking premium volume, wide underwriting margins — is exactly the backdrop against which Soares’s promise of continued discipline reads as strategy rather than slogan. It also puts Arch in the same conversation as peers managing capacity discipline through the current reinsurance cycle, including RenaissanceRe’s own first-quarter push into third-party capital vehicles as an alternative route to writing more risk without expanding the balance sheet.
Balance Sheet and Ratings Underpin the New Structure
Arch Capital’s book value per common share stood at $66.19 as of March 31, 2026, and the group carries roughly $26.9 billion in capital as a Bermuda-domiciled, S&P 500-listed company, giving the newly split reinsurance leadership a well-capitalized base to work from. Arch Reinsurance Ltd. holds an A+ Financial Strength Rating from AM Best, among ratings from four major agencies tracking the Bermuda carrier — a rating cedents will watch closely as authority shifts to Soares.
The broader group remains sizable by headcount and footprint: Arch is headquartered in Bermuda and operates from more than 60 offices across North America, Europe, Asia and Australia, employing nearly 7,000 people worldwide since its founding in 2001. Succession and regional realignment at that scale is not unique to Arch — Berkshire Hathaway’s own reinsurance succession plan named a successor to Ajit Jain earlier this year, underscoring how leadership depth has become a competitive signal across the sector.
What the Split Means for Cedents and Brokers
For brokers and cedents, the practical takeaway is a clearer map of who signs off on capacity in each region:
- Bermuda: Arch Reinsurance Ltd., led by William Soares
- United States: Arch Reinsurance Company, led by Jon Schriber
- Europe: Arch Reinsurance Europe Underwriting dac, underwriting led by David Seyller under President Pierre Jal
All three now report through Halgan’s global reinsurance office, mirroring a broader trend of specialists gaining named regional authority rather than sharing a single desk — the same logic behind Gallagher Re’s recent APAC cyber reinsurance hire. For treaty renewals still working through 2026, the message from Arch is that decision-making is getting closer to the risk, not further from it.
