Global specialty (re)insurer Canopius has appointed Valentina Minetti as head of medical professional liability (MPL).

Minetti takes up the role with immediate effect and brings nearly three decades of healthcare lines and actuarial experience to her new role.

She joins from Coverys Syndicate 1975 where she served as active underwriter.

Prior to this, she led Beazley’s US hospitals portfolio but began her career as an actuary, first at RSA and later at GE Financial and Groupama.

Alois Rouffiac, UK chief underwriting officer at Canopius, said: “Valentina is highly regarded within the healthcare industry globally and the ideal candidate to lead this area of our business. Building upon the appointments of Ashley and Alex, the team is now perfectly positioned to further grow our market share in this specialist area. I am confident that, under Valentina’s leadership, it will go from strength to strength.”

Minetti added: “I am delighted to join Canopius to lead the medical professional liability business. We have the ideal blend of technical, actuarial and commercial expertise and have assembled a team which knows this market inside out. I look forward to working alongside Ashley and Alex to deliver on our long-term commitment to the space and providing bespoke solutions to our clients.”

Canopius recently appointed Angelos Deftereos as head of structured credit and Boris Medimorec and Virad Patel as underwriters in its credit & political risk team in London.

They take up their roles with immediate effect while Dimitri Plastiras joins the APAC team in February as an underwriter.

Deftereos brings over two decades of experience to Canopius. He joins from Volante Global, where he held the position of managing director – structured finance, specialising in significant risk transfer (SRT) insurance, a growth area that he will lead in his new role.

Medimorec joins from UK Export Finance having previously spent two years with AJ Gallagher and almost 15 years with MUFG as managing director.

In addition, Patel comes from ING, having spent 10 years at the bank across risk, origination, and distribution functions. Most recently, he held the position of vice president for loan capital markets.

Plastiras was most recently associate director for debt advisory services at KPMG in Sydney.