QBE Asia announced four executive appointments over eight days in June 2026, filling roles across operations, data and analytics, and marine underwriting. The hires point to a division responding to two distinct market pressures: tightening AI governance requirements across its primary bases, and a P&I sector where commercial underwriters are gaining ground on the mutual club model.

Linking operations to data

Patrick Karlowski (pictured left) takes up the role of chief operating officer for QBE Asia on June 29, 2026, succeeding Klaas Dijkstra, who moves to chief information officer, international. Karlowski has spent more than two decades across insurance, financial services, and telecommunications, leading large-scale operational units in Asia and Europe and deploying digital insurance platforms across multiple markets. He reports to Nathan Fuller, chief operations officer, international, with a dotted line to Rob Kosova, chief executive officer of QBE Asia.

Florence Chan (pictured right) joins on July 13 as head of data, analytics and AI, Asia. She reports to Shrenik Dagli, group head of data, analytics and AI, and to Karlowski. Her background spans more than 20 years across data, analytics, financial services, and technology, covering regulatory reporting, governance frameworks, and AI implementation. Both will be based in Hong Kong.

That connection between the two roles is deliberate. QBE is structurally linking its regional AI and analytics function to its operational leadership – a configuration that positions data outputs to inform underwriting, pricing, and risk decisions rather than sitting as a separate technical function. Kosova said the appointments reflect the insurer’s aim of “building strong data foundations that unlock deep risk insights, which ultimately benefit our partners and customers.”

Regulators in both markets are moving on AI

The timing of Chan’s appointment coincides with regulatory activity on AI governance in both Hong Kong and Singapore. In Hong Kong, the Insurance Authority (IA) launched its AI Cohort Programme in August 2025. At the launch, IA chairman Stephen Yiu said AI was already being applied across policy underwriting, claims settlement, fraud detection, customer service, and sales support, and described the programme as aimed at driving collaboration while balancing responsible adoption with market dynamism. The programme has since grown: in March 2026, the IA joined the HKMA, SFC, and MPFA in launching the GenAI Sandbox++, covering multiple financial sectors including insurance, with a focus on risk management, anti-fraud measures, and customer experience.

In Singapore, MAS issued a consultation paper in November 2025 proposing Guidelines on AI Risk Management, setting out supervisory expectations covering AI oversight, risk management systems, life cycle controls, and the capabilities required for AI deployment across all financial institutions. The guidelines are expected to be finalised with a 12-month transition period to follow, and MAS identifies insurance underwriting as a high-materiality AI use case requiring proportionate board-level governance.

For an insurer operating across both markets, Chan’s appointment suggests a structural response to compliance expectations in both jurisdictions – embedding AI governance at a regional leadership level rather than managing it as a technical or IT matter.

O’Brien enters a market under claims pressure

On June 22, Callum O’Brien was appointed head of P&I, Asia, for British Marine, QBE’s specialist marine unit, based in Singapore. He succeeds Sebastian Tjornelund, who has been promoted to Asia head, underwriting, marine. O’Brien joins from a member club of the International Group P&I Clubs, where he served as underwriting director in Singapore overseeing underwriting across Asia and developing its small craft book. He brings more than a decade of P&I experience across brown and blue water segments, and reports to Richard Inman, portfolio manager, British Marine P&I.

Inman said: “Callum is a well-respected underwriter with longstanding relationships across the Asia market. His appointment highlights the importance of the region to our P&I strategy and the progress we have made in building the British Marine portfolio, as the business marks its 150th year.” O’Brien said he looks forward to “growing the portfolio in a disciplined and consistent way.”

The move from a mutual club to a commercial underwriter reflects conditions that are creating room for commercial players. Lockton’s 2025 P&I Market Review found that the 2024/25 policy year produced a collective underwriting loss of US$312 million across the International Group clubs, reversing two years of surpluses, with et claims reaching a 10-year peak of US$3.1 billion. Despite an average 5.2% general increase at the 2025 renewal, total mutual premium income held flat at US$3.96 billion, with average premium per gross tonne declining from US$3.14 to US$2.87. That combination of rising claims, stagnant premiums, and cost pressure on shipowners makes fixed-premium commercial products more competitive for operators seeking pricing certainty.

The Asia P&I market is the growth arena for that competition. The segment is estimated at between US$1 billion and US$1.5 billion in the region, representing approximately a quarter of the global market, with a further US$200 million in growth projected by 2030 based on data from the International Union of Marine Insurance and Axco. Asia accounted for 60% of global marine insurance premium growth in 2024, according to figures presented at the IUMI annual conference in Singapore.