John R Charman (born 1953) is an English businessman, who has made his career in insurance. He is currently CEO and chairman at Bermuda based Endurance Specialty Insurance Ltd, which has been bought by Sompo Holding (Japan ) in March 2017. He is currently the Executive Chairman of the Sompo Board of Directors.
Nicknamed "King of the London Insurance Market", Charman was described as "famously strong-willed and opinionated" by the Financial Times. Charman is ranked in the top 100 people in the global finance industry; inside the top ten richest people in the City of London; and 321st overall in the 2004 Sunday Times Rich List.
In August 2006 in what is believed to be the largest sum awarded to an English wife in a contested case, Charman was ordered to pay his ex-wife by the High Court of Justice a sum of £48 million. It beat the £30 million awarded to WPP Group chief executive Martin Sorrell's ex-wife in 2005 after their 32-year marriage ended in divorce.
Career
Charman made his fortune in the 1990, during the 1991 Gulf War, offering war risk insurance on a 24-hour basis. Charman was the chief executive officer of Tarquin plc (a joint venture company among Insurance Partners, Harvard University and the Charman Group), the parent company of the Charman Underwriting Agencies at Lloyd's of London. He was also a deputy chairman of the Council of Lloyd's and a member of the Lloyd's Core Management Group and Lloyd's Market Board between 1995 and 1997.
Nicknamed "King of the London Insurance market", Charman earned the loathing of employees by banning entertainment of clients in company time, and refusing to indulge in long business lunches himself. One critic claimed Charman was so intimidating that colleagues "half-expect the theme from The Godfather to greet him as he arrives at his office." In 2002 Axis settled out of court with a woman who claimed Charman barred her from a meeting, saying: "We are discussing something we decided when you were having babies."
Charman made more money when he sold Tarquin/Charman Underwriting Agencies for £350 million in 1998 to the Bermuda-based ACE International Group, receiving £70.6 million in ACE shares.
Charman was made chief executive officer at ACE Global Markets (the merger of Charman Underwriting and assets of ACE), and in January 2001 was named group president and chief executive officer of Bermuda based ACE International Group, but left the company in March 2001 due to personal differences. He was paid £3,597,241 in lieu of notice, and £500,000 in a one-off pension contribution.
Charman immediately set up Axis Capital, a Bermuda-based reinsurance and insurance business with offices in London, Dublin, Zurich and New York that is listed on the NYSE. The company aimed to cash in on the surge in insurance premiums after the 11 September terrorist attacks. In the financial year 2005 he was paid $7,741,762, and had stock options of $42,027,204 in Axis. Charman has informed the company that he will retire at the end of December 2008, he finally left Axis in 2012.
In May 2013 he became CEO and Chairman of Endurance Specialty Holdings, another NYSE-listed, Bermuda-based reinsurance and insurance business with offices in Bermuda, London, Singapore, Zurich, New York and other locations. He invested $30'000'000 of his private fortune in Endurance at the beginning of his tenure.
Divorce
Charman met his ex-wife Beverly in 1969 at school. When they married in 1976, neither had significant resources and the couple lived initially in her parents' home, and then in his mother's home in Strood near Rochester, Kent. The couple eventually moved to Sevenoaks, where they bought a home now worth £2.75 million. The couple have two children: Nicholas (born 1981) and Michael (born 1986).
As Charman's wealth built, the couple created the Bermuda-based Dragon Trust in 1987, which by 2006 had grown to a value of £65 million. The aim of the trust was according to Charman in his court papers agreed by the couple to preserve wealth for future generations.
After failing to secure a new house in England, in November 2003 Charman told his magistrate wife that he was taking up permanent residence in Bermuda and that their marriage was over. He has since set up home in a £2.1 million home in Bermuda, and has started a relationship with another woman, and American by the name of Lorraine Stapleton, to whom he is now married.