Timothy Braun
Executive Vice President

Timothy Braun leads AXIS Financial Institutions, a unit of the Professional Lines Division of AXIS Insurance. He directs underwriting strategy and has management responsibility for a team of financial institutions underwriters based in New York City. Tim has been in this role since January 2004 when AXIS U.S. Insurance created a dedicated unit to serve this specialized segment of the market. Reporting directly to Jack Kuhn, CEO, AXIS Professional Lines, Tim has over 20 years of financial institutions experience. Formerly, he was Vice President and National Practice Leader of Financial Institutions for AXIS Financial Insurance Solutions when that unit handled both commercial and financial institutions accounts. He served in a similar capacity at Kemper from January 2000 to February 2003 before the Financial Insurance Solutions unit became part of AXIS U.S. Insurance. Prior to joining Kemper, he had been an insurance broker and held positions at Aon and Frank Crystal & Co. in New York City. He also previously worked five years in Chubb’s Department of Financial Institutions. Tim holds B.A. in Economics with a minor in Spanish from Hamilton College and an MBA in Finance from Hofstra University, where he also has served as an adjunct Professor of Finance.
E-mail timothy.braun@axiscapital.com or go to our Contact List.

Bret Kilbourn
Senior Vice President, Regional Manager

Bret Kilbourn has responsibility for financial institutions business in the New York, Northeast, Southeast and Central Regions of the United States. Prior to this role, he had been SVP and Regional Manager for the Southeast Region of AXIS Financial Insurance Solutions. He also previously held underwriting and underwriting management positions in the Northeast Region of AXIS Financial Insurance Solutions, and in the Eastern Region when the Financial Insurance Solutions unit was part of Kemper. Bret began his insurance career as an underwriter in National Union's Middle Market Division. He has also held financial positions at Merck & Co. Inc. and American Express. He earned a B.A. from Colgate University and an MBA in Finance from Cornell University.
E-mail bret.kilbourn@axiscapital.com or go to our Contact List.

David Lynders
Senior Vice President, Regional Manager

David Lynders has responsibility for financial institutions business in the Western Region of the United States. He has specialized in the underwriting of financial institutions since he began his career in insurance at Executive Risk in Simsbury, CT. He also was an insurance broker and worked for six years in the financial institutions practice at Marsh in New York City. In 2006, he joined the Financial Institutions unit of AXIS Insurance. David holds a B.S. in Mathematics from the University of Connecticut and an MBA from New York University.

E-mail david.lynders@axiscapital.com or go to our Contact List.

Marc Berner, Esq.
 Vice President

Marc Berner underwrites financial institutions business in the Central Region. Prior to joining AXIS Financial Institutions in January 2004, Marc worked as an insurance broker for five years, focusing on the placement of management and professional liability insurance for financial institutions. He managed RP O’Brien’s Professional Liability Division and was a Senior Account Executive in Frank Crystal & Company’s Financial Services Division. Before moving to the brokerage side, Marc was an underwriter and Assistant Divisional Counsel at AIG, where he worked in the Financial Institutions Group. He earned his J.D. from Albany Law School of Union University where he was Associate Editor of the Albany Law Review. He also holds a B.A. in Political Science from the State University of New York at Binghamton.
E-mail marc.berner@axiscapital.com or go to our Contact List.

Steven Kane
 Vice President

Steven Kane underwrites financial institutions business in the New York Region, and he manages certain large brokerage relationships countrywide. Steven also serves as the AXIS Financial Institutions product manager for asset management classes of business, and he has developed specialized D&O and E&O policies for investment advisers, mutual funds and the alternative investment management marketplace. He has been with AXIS since February 2003, and he served in a similar capacity when the Financial Insurance Solutions unit was part of Kemper. At Kemper, Steven underwrote both financial institutions and commercial accounts business in the New York Region. Prior to joining Kemper in 2001, he had been an underwriter in Zurich’s Diversified Financial Institutions Group.
E-mail steven.kane@axiscapital.com or go to our Contact List.

Paul Ma
 Assistant Vice President

Paul Ma underwrites financial institutions business in the Northeast and Southeast Regions. He has 19 years of insurance experience and previously worked in various underwriting and underwriting management capacities with a number of national carriers. In addition to underwriting financial institutions D&O, EPL, E&O, fidelity bond and pension liability insurance, Paul has handled many other lines of business, including contract surety, non-contract surety, financial institutions property and casualty insurance, umbrella insurance and miscellaneous E&O insurance. He has a bachelor’s degree in Finance from Baruch College.
E-mail paul.ma@axiscapital.com or go to our Contact List.

Ron Polonsky
 Assistant Vice President

Ron Polonsky underwrites financial institutions business in the Western and New York Regions. Prior to joining the Financial Institutions unit of AXIS Insurance in 2005, Ron held underwriting and underwriting management positions at other national carriers writing both financial institutions and commercial business. He was also previously a broker with Aon Financial Services Group in New York City.
E-mail ronald.polonsky@axiscapital.com or go to our Contact List.

Bhuma Patel
Underwriting Manager

Bhuma Patel underwrites financial institutions business in the Western and New York Regions. She joined AXIS Financial Institutions in 2007 from ACE, where she was a senior underwriter. Bhuma also previously worked at CNA. She graduated with an MBA from New York University in 2007.
E-mail bhuma.patel@axiscapital.com or go to our Contact List.

Tania Chen
Senior Underwriter

Tania Chen underwrites financial institutions business in the Northeast, Southeast and New York Regions. She formally worked in the Financial Institutions Group at AIG, where she specialized in underwriting large Investment Advisor and Agent E&O programs. Prior to that she was in the Group Insurance Department at CIGNA Corporation where she served as a Regional Travel Accident Specialist and Service Representative. Tania is currently working towards her MBA in Finance and Management at Fordham University.
E-mail tania.chen@axiscapital.com or go to our Contact List.

 

  © AXIS Capital Terms of UsePrivacy