Following an announcement at the IUMI 2014 conference in Hong Kong, the new President of the International Union of Marine Insurers is Dieter Berg, head of business of Munich Re’s marine global partnership division.

Berg replaces outgoing chairman Ole Wikborg, director, Norwegian Hull Club. Wikborg has been President since 2010 and part of the executive committee for eight years. He said: "Thank for allowing me to serve you these past four years. I have made many friends and I am confident in the future of IUMI."

Berg commented: "I am delighted to serve as IUMI President. Our voice is being heard from across the maritime community and IUMI’s importance is growing."

He added: "We need to increase the influence of IUMI on governments and non-governmental organisations, and we need to foster the importance of marine insurance in our own companies."

As of today, there are also three new members of the IUMI executive committee:

Frank Costa, President of Berkley Offshore, Shinji Urano, General Manager, Marine Underwriting, Tokio Marine and Lars Rhodin, Managing Director, the Swedish Club.

Costa, Urano and Rhodin replace Wikborg, Robert Gallagher, Chairman International Marine Underwriters and Kiyoaki Sano, Managing Director, Tokio Marine.