Name Peter Appel | Education Colgate University | |
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Peter A. Appel (born 1962) is an American entrepreneur, investor and former business executive. Appel, a Founder and former President and Chief Executive Officer of Arch Capital Group Ltd., is currently the Non-Executive Chairman of Aeolus Capital Management LLC, an asset management firm he founded in 2011 and oversaw as Chairman and CEO until it was sold to Elliott Management in January 2017.
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Career
In 2011, Peter Appel formed Aeolus Capital Management to manage capital on behalf of investors seeking exposure to the property catastrophe reinsurance and retrocession markets. The company raised and deployed over $1.2 billion of capital in its first year as an asset manager and today has $3 billion of assets under management. In December 2012, Allied World Assurance Company acquired a minority stake in Aeolus Capital. A sale of Aeolus Capital to Paul Singer (businessman)'s Elliott Management Corporation was announced in November 2016 and closed in January 2017. Elliott has been a long-time investor in funds managed by Aeolus Capital. Aeolus Capital has been ranked by Barron's as one of the best performing hedge funds in the world.
In July 2006, Appel and David Eklund founded Aeolus Re, a Bermuda-based property catastrophe reinsurance company whose initial investors included Warburg Pincus and Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Prior to transforming Aeolus into an asset management company in 2011, Appel served as Chairman and CEO of Aeolus Ltd., the parent company of Aeolus Re, which became a global leader in providing collateralized property catastrophe reinsurance protection and the largest provider of property catastrophe retrocessional protection in the world. Since inception, Aeolus Capital and Aeolus Re have deployed over $25 billion in the reinsurance and retrocessional markets.
Before founding Aeolus Re, Appel was a founder of Arch Capital Group Ltd., a publicly traded global insurance and reinsurance company (NASDAQ: ACGL). He served as its President and CEO from May 2000 through July 2003. During this period, he oversaw Arch Capital's transformation into a worldwide property and casualty insurance and reinsurance company before he was succeeded by Constantine "Dinos" Iordanou. Appel remained on Arch Capital's Board of Directors through May 2006. Arch Capital has a market capitalization in excess of $10 billion.
Appel was also the lead investor in the acquisition and recapitalization of Tri-City Brokerage LLC, one of the largest independent wholesale insurance brokerage firms in the United States, prior to its sale to Bisys in March 2003. Appel has been a founding investor in a number of start-ups in the insurance industry and has served as lead investor in companies outside of the insurance industry. Appel has an ownership interest in the Houston Astros.
Prior to his career as an entrepreneur, investor and business executive in the insurance and reinsurance industry, Appel was a partner at Willkie Farr & Gallagher, where he practiced corporate law from 1987 to 1995.
Education
Appel graduated from Colgate University in 1984 and Harvard Law School in 1987.
Personal
Appel, formerly of Bedford, New York, resides in Miami, Florida.