Zurich has appointed Dave Anderson as head of credit and political risk, effective immediately.

He replaces Jim Thomas, who recently left the firm to head up Everest Re’s new credit and political risk business unit under Everest Specialty Underwriters.

A 14-year veteran of Zurich, Anderson was recently global business development director for credit and political risk.

In his new role, he is accountable for the direction, management and performance of the unit, which is part of specialty products of Zurich North America Commercial and has political risk and single risk trade credit underwriting teams in the Americas, London, Europe and the Asia Pacific region, and a short-term multi-buyer trade credit team in New York and London.

Anderson will remain based in Washington, DC, and report to Bryan Salvatore, president of Zurich Specialty Products.

“Dave brings a deep understanding of the risks that global businesses face in an increasingly volatile world,” Salvatore says. “Under his leadership, Zurich will continue to provide world-class credit and political risk solutions for customers operating in emerging markets.”

Anderson started with Zurich in 2002, launched the Australia credit and political risk underwriting office in 2006, launched the Singapore office in 2009 and managed the Asia Pacific regional team until 2012. Before joining Zurich, he led FCIA’s eastern region for multi-buyer credit insurance out of New York and underwrote political risk insurance for Citicorp International Trade Indemnity, handling mainly Sub-Saharan Africa.