Asia Pacific Business Leadership

Paul McNamee is Senior Vice President, Chubb Group and Regional President, Asia Pacific. He is responsible for the general management and business results for all general insurance operations in the region, which includes Australia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Korea, Macao, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

Mr. McNamee has more than 20 years of insurance industry experience.  He was appointed Deputy Regional President and Executive Vice President, Commercial Property & Casualty, Asia Pacific in September 2013, a position he retained after ACE's acquisition of Chubb in January 2016. 

Previously, Mr. McNamee was President of ACE's North America Property & Specialty Lines. Mr. McNamee joined ACE in 1995 in Australia and was named Head of Property and Technical Lines for Asia Pacific in 2002, based in Singapore. Mr. McNamee went on to become the Chief Operating Officer for ACE in Hong Kong before being posted to London in 2005 as the Executive Vice President and Head of ACE's International Property & Technical Lines business.  

Mr. McNamee entered the industry in 1995, joining CIGNA Corporation's International operations in Australia.

Grant Cairns is Head of Property & Casualty for Chubb in Asia Pacific. He has overall management responsibility for Chubb’s extensive Commercial property & casualty business across the region which includes Property & Terrorism, Energy, Construction, Casualty, Financial Lines, Environmental, SME, Marine and Industry Practice Solutions.

Mr. Cairns has over 20 years of experience in the insurance industry. He started at Chubb in 2004 as the Financial Lines Manager, Victoria, Australia and was promoted to Financial Lines Manager for Australia and New Zealand in 2007. In 2013, he relocated to London, starting his international career as the Regional Manager, Financial Lines for Chubb’s Continental Europe, Eurasia & Africa region, before taking on the role of Financial Lines Manager for UK & Irelend.

Mr. Cairns returned to the region as Head of Financial Lines for Asia Pacific in 2018. Concurrently, he was also the Private Equity Industry Practice Leader for Chubb’s international operations at that time. As the Private Equity Industry Practice Leader, he was responsible for leading and coordinating the delivery of Chubb's full set of insurance products and services across all regions outside North America to respond to private equity related transactions and meet the needs of their portfolio companies.

Mr. Cairns holds a Graduate Diploma in Insurance from Deakin University, Australia.

Ben Howell is Senior Vice President and Regional Head of Consumer, Asia Pacific. He is responsible for the management and development of Chubb’s Consumer business, including all accident, health, travel, residential, high-net-worth, motor and specialty products under the Accident & Health and Personal Lines portfolios. He oversees distribution through intermediaries, direct marketing and digital partnerships.

Mr. Howell has 20 years experience in the insurance industry, including more than a decade of experience in Asia. He commenced his career at Chubb’s predecessor company in Sydney, Australia in 2002 before embarking on his international career three years later. Then with AIG, Mr. Howell worked in Hong Kong and Singapore leading their financial institutions underwriting business for Asia. In 2008, he joined Allied World in Hong Kong to build and run a Financial Lines business in the Asia Pacific region. In 2014, he relocated from Hong Kong to Australia in the same role, before assuming concurrently the role of Country Manager for Australia in 2015.

In July 2016, Mr. Howell returned to Chubb as Global Broker Unit Manager for Victoria. He was been promoted to roles of increasing responsibility since, most recently to Regional Head of Accident & Health, Asia Pacific, prior to his current appointment.

Mr. Howell holds a Bachelor of Applied Finance & Bachelor of Laws (with Honours) from Macquarie University in Sydney.