Global Parametrics builds out team with weather scientist & software hires

Global Parametrics, the parametric and index-based disaster risk transfer company, has added two hires as it continues to build out its team to meet growing demands for index-based risk transfer and insurance products.

Global Parametrics aims to consolidate on its position as a provider of climate and natural disaster risk protection by developing global, standardised indices that enable risk transfer products to be distributed at scale.

Weather, climate and peril based indices are one tool in the parametric risk transfer box, enabling products to be constructed to provide insurance, reinsurance or pure hedging of exposures, by closely aligning how payout mechanisms respond to the actual data on loss events, or climate trends.

To do this effectively, climate science, peril specific understanding and data as well as the ability to translate them are key, as is the ability to take learnings from this work to create better risk transfer, or insurance, indices and triggers that can be responsive to the needs of cedents and customers.

To achieve this, Global Parametrics is growing its team, adding Obbe Tuinenburg, an expert in atmospheric and weather-related processes for risk modelling, as well as Zoe Nolan, an experienced software engineer with more than 15 years of diverse coding experience.

Tuinenburg joins Global Parametrics as a Senior Weather Scientist, to lead the firms research into the General Circulation Models (GCMs) that act as a base for its global weather product suite.

He joins from the University of Utrecht, where he held the role of assistant professor teaching atmospheric processes during droughts, following postdoctoral research into land-surface processes, atmospheric dynamics and moisture transport with the goal of improving forecasts.

Nolan has software experience ranging from low-level hardware to cloud services, microservices and blockchain development.

Before joining Global Parametrics, Nolan worked at Intel and Skype and was involved in the development of real-time video encoders, GPU architecture and game engines. More recently, she has been focussed on product architecture for wholesale banking settlement platforms at Clearmatics.

Nolan takes on the role of Senior Software Engineer and will help to drive forwards Global Parametrics’ ambitions to evolve its global standardised indices from traditional structured products to trading and digital distribution platforms, as well as direct client interactions.

“I am excited that we are able to attract such talent to Global Parametrics,” Hector Ibarra, CEO commented. “Both Obbe and Zoe are excellent additions to our team and will be vital as our company seeks to maintain its leadership position by consistently innovating in both product and distribution.”

Nolan stated, “GP continues my goal to bring technical solutions to difficult problems. I’m thrilled to be involved in GP’s ongoing mission..

Tuinenburg added, “I am keen to bring my expertise to GP as it continually strives to bring class leading climate and natural disaster products to those who need them the most.”

Global Parametrics launched in 2016, with the goal of providing parametric or index-linked risk transfer, through the sale of parametric insurance or reinsurance protection, to entities lacking in coverage, or where there is no weather, catastrophe or climate related coverage at all.