Caterina Technologies, Inc., a quantitative applied research and development firm building financial technology infrastructure with its initial focus on the catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) sector, has announced the hiring of senior Swiss Re ILS focused product and strategy leader Anthony Russo.
Russo joins the company from Swiss Re where he has played an integral role in the adoption of technology by the reinsurance firm’s Alternative Capital Partners (ACP) insurance linked securities focused operations, resulting in the development and roll-out of an industry-leading end-to-end ILS platform that became a core system for deal management, portfolio oversight and analytics.
He had spent over a decade at the global reinsurer, first as a Senior ILS Business Manager working on the issuance of catastrophe bonds and derivative products from inception to settlement, then becoming the Strategic Products Lead where he led the development of Swiss Re’s well known iLink technology platform.
Russo became a Vice President within Swiss Re’s Alternative Capital Partners in 2022 and took on the role of Team Lead for ILS business and product management, further developing the iLink platform to become a leading SaaS product in the catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities marketplace.
Now Russo joins a company that has an ambition to democratise and greatly enhance the level of analytics and technology in use across the ILS marketplace, through development of a next-generation set of financial technology infrastructure for the sector.
Jack Stone, Chief Executive Officer of Caterina commented on the appointment, “Anthony and I first met when I was on the trading desk at Gallagher. It was clear from our first conversation that he and I shared the same ultimate goals of bringing greater standardization and transparency to the ILS marketplace.”
“I’m excited to join Caterina Technologies and work collaboratively with our clients and partners to bring a new generation of tools to the ILS market,” Russo stated. “There is a significant opportunity to unlock value by putting data and transparency at the center of how risk is understood, priced, and managed. Our focus will be on building products that connect the ecosystem end-to-end and help support sustainable growth and expansion of the market.”
Stone added, “I am thrilled to be joining forces with Anthony, and now everyone can rest easily knowing that two former competitors, who have only ever wanted the best for ILS managers and their LPs, are now working together.”
Luke Meehan, Executive Chairman of Caterina, also said, “Anthony and Caterina have been building toward the same vision from different places toward a market that finally has the infrastructure it deserves. Now, it will finally come together, with neither politics nor conflicts of interest. We are focused purely on execution. Together, we’re going to deliver something this market has never seen, and the industry should be paying attention.”
Ridwan Bari, Chief Technology Officer of Caterina further explained: “As a company, we have been and will continue to be very selective about senior leadership hires. I’m thrilled that with Anthony we have very strong alignment on product strategy. We are equally excited that there is very strong cultural alignment as well to innovate and deliver value to our customers.”
Caterina CEO Jack Stone provided some further insights into the companies annual roadmap and plans to bring on deep expertise to help in building out modern, fit-for-purpose cat bond and ILS market technology infrastructure.
“Beyond our foundational workflow automation products, we’re continuing to invest heavily in R&D. We’re making some very big senior hires on the quant side of the house this month to build products for hedge funds and proprietary trading shops,” Stone explained.
Adding that, “We will add some more ILS-specific headcount over the next few weeks to support product rollout, especially around Loss Report Automation and Portfolio Management tools.
“As the market softens, we are seeing more complex structures return, and we will alleviate this heartburn for our manager and broker-dealer clients by launching robust Loss Report automation products in Q1 2026.”
Stone further commented, “We hired Anthony because we knew he would hit the ground running with our existing products on day-one. But more importantly, as both Luke and Ridwan noted, his intellectual curiosity and zeal for truth, transparency, and innovation made him a natural fit for Caterina.”
Caterina is aiming to improve transparency and data fluency in the insurance-linked securities market, by focusing on developing technology that meets the core needs of market participants and creates decision-ready insights to inform management, trading and analysing cat bond and ILS instruments.
