By James Thaler, David Bull

Jan 27 - Tim Whisler, executive vice president and head of Lexington’s contract bind platform Western World Insurance Group, has left the AIG-owned carrier to join Axa XL as head of wholesale, E&S Insurer can reveal.

Whisler took on the role at Western World – which was bought by AIG with its $5.5bn acquisition of Validus Re – in July 2020, in a move first revealed by our sister publication The Insurer.

He had previously been head of distribution at AIG’s wholesale only subsidiary Lexington.

He took the position at Western World after Troy Santora left for a senior vice president role at Amwins Access, the small binding platform of the wholesale giant.

Whisler joins another significant E&S carrier in Axa XL, which ranks in the top 10 US surplus lines groups.

Its wholesale solutions division has a broad appetite across a range of property, casualty, professional and specialty E&S lines of business, offering over 50 products to its distribution partners, according to its website.

The carrier provides meaningful line sizes in areas like E&S commercial property, energy, equipment breakdown, casualty E&S including umbrella, environmental, construction, cyber, executive liability, professional liability and others.

Axa XL’s insurance business in the Americas is led by Lucy Pilko.

Lex career

Whisler had been at Lexington all of his career, joining back in 2005 and assuming increasingly senior roles before being promoted to head of field operations and distribution after Lou Levinson took the reins at the E&S insurer.

Other roles at Lexington he held included zone executive for the Northeast, head of architects and engineers professional liability for the US, Canada and London, and regional casualty manager.

Western World was realigned to become part of Lexington in April 2019.

Western World has been part of the growth story at Lexington in recent years. On AIG’s Q3 2024 earnings call, group chairman and CEO Peter Zaffino noted that Western World saw a 30 percent increase in submissions in the quarter.

A spokesperson for Axa XL confirmed Whisler's appointment, but declined to comment further. Lexington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.