HARRINGTON RE - Key Persons


Greg Rymon-lipinski - CFO

Job Titles:
  • Chief Financial Officer
  • Member of the Executive Team
  • Chief Financial Officer at Harrington
Greg is the Chief Financial Officer at Harrington. Mr. Rymon-Lipinski has over 20 years of professional experience in the (re)insurance industry. Prior to joining Harrington, Mr. Rymon-Lipinski lead the external financial reporting function at AXIS Capital.

Martin Alderson Smith

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Board of Directors
Until January 15, 2021, and from April 4, 2022, Martin Alderson Smith is a member of the Harrington Re Board of Directors. Mr. Alderson Smith is an Executive Advisor to Blackstone. Prior to taking up his current role at Blackstone, Mr. Alderson Smith was Chief Operating Officer at Blackstone Insurance Solutions as well as Head of Corporate Development working on firm wide strategy and evaluation of new business initiatives. Mr. Alderson Smith was formerly the Managing Partner of Blackstone's M&A advisory business and a Senior Managing Director in the Financial Institutions Group. In that capacity, he worked on a wide array of insurance and asset management projects, including representing the State Regulators of New York, New Jersey, Iowa, Maryland and Washington on the proposed demutualization and conversion of John Hancock, MetLife, Prudential, Principal, Carefirst and Premera Blue Cross. He also was retained by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Insurance Department to review a number of corporate transactions including the affiliation of Highmark with West Penn Allegheny Health System, and Highmark's acquisition of Blue Cross of Northeastern Pennsylvania. In addition, he has advised clients including Aviva, State Street, AIG and Ullico on a spectrum of acquisitions, divestitures, and partnership transactions. Earlier in his career, Mr. Alderson Smith worked for First Boston in London and New York for eight years before joining Blackstone in 1991. Mr. Alderson Smith holds an MA from Oxford University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Nick Buckley - Chief Risk Officer

Job Titles:
  • Chief Risk Officer
  • Member of the Executive Team
  • Chief Risk Officer and Chief Actuary
Nick is the Chief Risk Officer & Chief Actuary at Harrington. Mr. Buckley has over 20 years of experience in the non-life insurance industry, most recently with AXIS Capital, where he held the roles of Chief Risk Officer for AXIS Re Europe SE and Senior Vice President within the Group Risk Team. Mr. Buckley joined AXIS in 2008, playing an integral role in the development and build out of AXIS's Risk function and Enterprise Risk Management framework. During the years 2001 to 2008 Mr. Buckley was a member of the Remetrics team at reinsurance broker Benfield (now part of Aon Benfield) where he worked on a wide range of reinsurance risk modeling and advisory projects. Nick also held the position of Vice President at XL Financial Solutions working on non-traditional reinsurance. He began his career at the actuarial consultancy Tillinghast-Towers Perrin (now part of Willis Towers Watson) where he worked on a variety of reserving and financial modeling assignments. Mr. Buckley graduated from the University of Manchester with a joint honors degree in Maths and Physics and has been a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries since 2000.

Peter Durhager

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Board of Directors
Mr. Durhager is the former President of Renaissance Services Ltd. and a former Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer of Renaissance Re Holdings Ltd. Mr. Durhager served as Deputy Chairman at Ascendant Group Ltd. from June 1, 2012, until his election as Chairman in 2014. He served as Chairman of the Board of Ascendant Group Ltd until the completion of the sale of the company to Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp in November 2020. Mr. Durhager co-founded Promisant Holdings Ltd. and served as its President and Chief Operating Officer from January 2000 to February 2003. He served as Vice Chairman of Promisant Holdings Ltd. from 1999 to 2003. Mr. Durhager served as Chief Executive Officer of Logic Communications Ltd. from January 1996 to December 1999 and Chairman from 1995 to 1999. From 1997 to 1999, he served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Millennium International Limited. From July 1991 to December 1995, he served as Head of Electronic Banking & Card Services at the Bank of Butterfield. Mr. Durhager was a Director of Ascendant Group Ltd. from 2003 to 2020 and was a Director of One Communications (formerly KeyTech Limited) from 2000 to 2014. Mr. Durhager served as Chairman of America's Cup Bermuda from 2015 to 2018 and the Bermuda Community Foundation from 2014 to 2019. He also served as a Non-Executive Director of F&G Re Ltd. and F&G Life Re Ltd from December 2017 to December 2020. Mr. Durhager is currently Non-Executive Chairman of Somers Limited and Executive Director of the Allan & Gill Gray Foundation. He is a Member of the Institute of Directors (IOD), the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) and Young Presidents Organization.

Robert Friedman - Chairman

Job Titles:
  • Chairman of the Board of Directors
  • Chairman of the Harrington Re Board of Directors
Robert Friedman is the Chairman of the Harrington Re Board of Directors. Mr. Friedman is a former Senior Managing Director of the Blackstone Group. Mr. Friedman joined the Blackstone Group in 1999 and served as Chief Legal Officer of the firm from January 2003 through July 2010 and was also the firm's Chief Administrative Officer during most of that period. He retired as a Senior Managing Director in June 2012 and has been a Senior Advisor of the Blackstone Group since that date. Before joining the Blackstone Group, Mr. Friedman was a partner with Simpson Thacher & Bartlett for 25 years, where he was a senior member of that law firm's mergers and acquisitions practice. Mr. Friedman graduated from Columbia College and the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He is a member of the Boards of Directors of United Way of New York City, New Alternatives for Children, the Nantucket Land Council and the Institute for Law and Economics of the University of Pennsylvania.

Robert Lupo

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Board of Directors
  • Chief Operation Officer for AXIS Capital
Robert Lupo is Finance Chief Operation Officer for AXIS Capital ("AXIS"). Rob is responsible for Global Legal Entity Accounting & Regulatory Reporting, Global Tax, and Global Finance Shared Services. He has been with AXIS for 17 years. Prior to AXIS, he was Head of Strategic Investments and Risk Services for Wells Fargo (Legacy Wachovia); Global Head of Tax at Everest Re; and Senior Tax Manager at PWC (legacy Coopers & Lybrand.) specializing in the (Re)Insurance Industry. Rob is an attorney with a Master of Law in Taxation.

William Fischer - CEO, President

Job Titles:
  • Chief Executive Officer
  • Member of the Board of Directors
  • Member of the Executive Team
  • President
William Fischer is the Chief Executive Officer of Harrington Re and has over 35 years of reinsurance industry experience. Prior to joining Harrington Re, Mr. Fischer served as the Chief Underwriting Officer for the global Reinsurance operations of AXIS Capital and had worked at AXIS Capital since the company's inception in 2001, helping to found the company. Mr. Fischer played an integral role in building AXIS Capital's global reinsurance business to over $20 billion in cumulative gross written premium across 14 lines of business with experience leading and managing all aspects of the business including underwriting, risk and capital management. Mr. Fischer moved to Bermuda in 2001 to build the reinsurance business and served as President and Chief Executive Officer of AXIS Reinsurance. Mr. Fischer returned to the United States from Bermuda in June 2011 to assume the role of Chief Underwriting Officer for AXIS Reinsurance globally. Prior to joining AXIS, Mr. Fischer was Executive Vice President at Everest Re Group and had responsibilities for a variety of reinsurance product lines including property, accident and health and financial products. Mr. Fischer previously worked at Transatlantic Reinsurance in both the London and New York offices and began his reinsurance career at Skandia America Group in 1987. Prior to reinsurance Mr. Fischer was a design engineer with Honeywell. Mr. Fischer has both a Bachelor of Science in Engineering and a Master of Business Administration from Columbia University as well as graduating from the prestigious Challenge of Leadership program at Insead. Mr. Fischer is also a founding partner in Alpasión Wines helping to build a thriving wine business in the Uco Valley of Mendoza, Argentina with his partners.