AkinovA names Matthew Gilpinas as Group Chief Operating Officer

AkinovA, the technology-led insurance and reinsurance platform focused on increasing access to underwriting capital for large corporate risks, has confirmed the appointment of Matthew Gilpinas as Group Chief Operating Officer, effective from 1 May 2026.

The appointment comes as AkinovA progresses into a further stage of execution, with the company expanding its platform and underlying technology to facilitate additional underwriting capacity for complex and high-value corporate exposures.

AkinovA continues to work with large corporates, reinsurers, brokers and institutional capital providers to respond to a structural issue in the global risk market: enabling more efficient transfer, financing and management of increasingly complex risks, while improving data quality and broadening access to long-term capital.

At the centre of AkinovA’s offering is its proprietary A1Policy framework, a technology-enabled, cross-class, multi-year excess umbrella solution designed for large corporates with established risk management capabilities and captive insurance structures.

AkinovA positions the A1Policy to sit above existing insurance programmes, complementing broker and carrier relationships rather than displacing them, while supporting a more transparent route for corporate risk to access reinsurance and capital markets capacity over time.

In this role, Gilpinas with lead the operational development required for the company’s next phase of growth. This includes strengthening governance, establishing cross-jurisdictional operating structures, enhancing institutional readiness and maintaining execution discipline across AkinovA’s activities in London and Bermuda.

His responsibilities also cover the continued development of AkinovA’s managing general underwriting capabilities, technology-driven underwriting processes, corporate data infrastructure and capital partner framework.

Gilpinas has over 20 years of senior leadership experience spanning regulated financial services, capital formation, governance and multi-jurisdictional platform development.

He is a qualified UK barrister specialising in financial regulation and previously held the roles of COO and General Counsel at Lodge Quai Group, where he led an institutional transformation, introduced governance and risk frameworks, and supported the securing of significant capital backing from insurance companies and sovereign wealth funds.

In addition, he has founded and scaled a number of investment and risk-transfer structures, including the Netherlands Protected Cell Cooperative, and has co-founded ventures in artificial intelligence and quantum computing with applications in marine risk, fintech and insurtech across the UK and Asia.

Dr. Henri Winand, CEO and Co-Founder of AkinovA, commented: “Matthew brings the exact combination AkinovA now needs: operational discipline, institutional capital expertise, additional regulated financial services experience, and the ability to build robust structures across jurisdictions.

“AkinovA is addressing a structural capacity problem for large corporates. Many of the world’s largest companies retain more risk because traditional insurance and reinsurance structures do not always provide sufficient, efficient or durable capacity for the risks they now face. Our focus is to create new underwriting capital for high-quality corporate risks, supported by better data, better analytics and a more direct risk-to-capital pathway.

“As we move from platform development into scaled execution, Matthew’s experience in governance, capital formation and institutional-grade operating models will be central to how we deliver for corporate members, reinsurers, brokers and capital partners.”

Matthew Gilpin, Group Chief Operating Officer of AkinovA, added: “AkinovA is addressing one of the most important problems in the global risk market: how large corporates and underwriting capital can connect more efficiently around complex, high-value risk.

“The opportunity is not simply to digitise an existing process. It is to build a regulated, technology-enabled operating model that improves underwriting information, supports better capital allocation and helps create new capacity for corporate risk. I am pleased to join AkinovA at this stage and to support the Group’s transition into scaled execution.”…Read more by Taylor Mixides