Oak Global CEO: New capital and risk create opportunities
Insurance-linked securities markets are adapting to an evolving risk environment involving geopolitics, climate, and artificial intelligence. New capital structures are emerging to meet growing demand. Oak Global plans to leverage investor diversification to capture these opportunities, according to CEO and Founder Cathal Carr.
Leveraging New Investors
In an interview with Artemis just before the 2026 Monte Carlo Rendez-vous event, Carr discussed scaling third-party capital. The specialist Lloyd’s underwriting company is designing a hybrid model to balance different types of funding.
“Since the inception of the business, we’ve tried to design a hybrid capital model, where we feel it has the right balance and flexibility as we think about different forms of capital and bringing that to bear,” Carr explained to Artemis.
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Within the capital stack, Bain Capital serves as the private equity investor. Additionally, the company receives funding through members’ agents, which Carr refers to as “names capital.”
Beyond these core components, Oak Global engages with a number of other stakeholders. The firm increasingly expands the breadth of these investors through long-term agreements. This strategy extends to traditional fund of alternative liquidity providers. It also targets newer financial investors entering the industry.
Carr confirmed that increasing diversification will occur over time.
This strategy achieves two key components from a capital perspective: permanence, which provides certainty that funding will remain available for clients, and scalability, allowing the firm to increase offerings when opportunities arise.
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Wider Risk Environment
When analyzing the industry and broader risk environment, Carr notes distinct areas of concern. Geopolitical risks include the evolving situation within the Middle East, as well as the ongoing conflicts in Russia and Ukraine.
Economic risks also loom large. Uncertainty surrounds interest rates, inflation, and global trade disagreements. Weather and climate-related risks present another challenge, specifically the increasing contribution of losses from secondary perils.
“We can also move to weather and climate-related risk and the increasing contribution of losses that are coming from secondary perils and the situation that continues to unfold there,” Carr said.
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Technology impacts the market too. Artificial intelligence influences existing casualty products but also drives the creation of new products.
The insurance industry has historically seen shifts driven by public equity capital. This has expanded over time to include hedge funds, pension funds, and sovereign wealth. In recent years, there has been an increase in innovative structures developed by traditional asset managers, private credit firms, and family offices.
“We feel that for our industry there’s a significant opportunity there for us to collectively grow the market, to bring more value to our investors, to create more value, but also importantly to increase our value add to societies, to businesses, to consumers,” Carr added.
