Mark Byrne D'85, T'86
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"My father made my career choice for me."
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His Father's Son
Warren Buffett famously dubbed Mark Byrne's father, Jack, "the Babe Ruth of insurance" for his role in reversing losing streaks at Geico and Fireman's Fund. As executive chairman of Flagstone Reinsurance Holdings Limited, Mark is now hitting home runs of his own.
"My father made my career choice for me," he says with a chuckle. "Those who have met him will know this is not hyperbole."
Just two years after its founding, Reinsurance Magazine ranked Flagstone Re second in a recent poll of industry brokers and cedants. The Bermuda-based firm finished behind General Re and one spot ahead of Swiss Re—an amazing feat against two century-old competitors. Flagstone also blazed onto the New York Stock Exchange a short 15 months after its launch with an IPO that was three times oversubscribed.
Secrets to the company's success include cutting-edge data analysis, a globalized strategy that distributes risk worldwide, and a high level of client services; quotes are supplied in 48 hours rather than the standard two weeks.
Add to that Mark's barnstorming. With "sheer brute force," he visited more than 100 investors to raise the initial $715 million in private equity. He still flies 200 days a year to woo clients, visit Flagstone Re offices in 10 countries, conduct M&A research, and manage the technology.
Mark writes much of the company's innovative software himself, a skill he first acquired as an undergrad at Dartmouth. And much like with his career path, Mark's father was influential in his choice of college. On the way home from a ski trip when he was 10, Jack Byrne drove Mark and his two brothers through the Hanover campus. "'It's a shame none of you are smart enough to get in,' he said. I decided at that moment I was going to Dartmouth," recalls Mark. (His two brothers are also Dartmouth graduates.)
At Tuck, Mark coauthored a published study entitled "An Equilibrium Bond Option Pricing Model in Discrete Time." He worked for 10 years as a derivatives trader and was managing director at Credit Suisse First Boston when Buffett offered to back him in a fixed-income arbitrage hedge fund. At its peak, Mark's company, West End Capital Management (Bermuda) Limited, managed $1.2 billion.
Flagstone Re grew indirectly out of the devastation of Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma. The 2005 disasters drew heavy investor interest in reinsurance, motivating Mark and West End partner David Brown to venture into the industry. Their strategy of tolerating less volatility for a lower but steadier stream of earnings has so far attracted $1.15 billion in capital.
As a respite from his 70-hour workweeks, Mark takes "half-vacations," working four hours a day while in Nantucket or Switzerland with his wife, Rebecca, a lawyer, and his four children, who range in age from nine to two. "If I completely switch off my BlackBerry for a week, I get 2,000 messages when I return. I hate that day," he says. At home in Bermuda, he always fixes dinner—often French or Asian dishes—with a hand from his children.
"They'll even help me make things they won't eat," says Mark, who is following in his father's footsteps as a Tuck overseer. His latest quest is to get his flight instructor's license so he can begin teaching his children to fly when they turn 12—good training for the ever-high aspirations of the Byrnes.
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