HDI Global is expanding its specialist capacity in Dubai with two senior appointments focused on cyber underwriting and construction risk engineering. The moves signal how corporate and specialty insurers in the Middle East are adapting their teams to match demand driven by cyber threats and the region’s increasingly complex infrastructure pipeline.
For insurers, the Gulf remains a growth market, but it is also one where risk is evolving quickly. Digital transformation is broadening the types of technology and operational systems that organizations rely on, while major capital projects add new construction and delivery complexities, from design coordination to stakeholder and compliance requirements.
Dubai hires target cyber underwriting and construction risk engineering
According to the insurer, Jessica Heaume has joined as Head of Cyber, Middle East, and Lloyd Lui has been appointed Senior Risk Engineer, Construction, Middle East. Both roles are designed to strengthen HDI Global’s corporate and specialty offerings as it supports clients across the GCC.
Heaume brings more than eight years of experience in cyber and financial lines underwriting, with prior roles across cyber and facultative reinsurance. She previously worked at AIG, where she served as Head of Cyber for the Middle East and Africa region, including work on developing and executing a cyber underwriting strategy. Earlier in her career, she held underwriting positions at Beazley in London.
Lui has more than 13 years of experience spanning engineering, project risk management, and insurance, with career experience across Australia, the United Kingdom, and the Middle East. The insurer says his background includes work supporting brokers and underwriters on construction risk engineering, with stints at firms such as Marsh McLennan, Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance, and Allianz Commercial. Most recently, he was based in Saudi Arabia and worked on major giga-projects across the GCC.
Why cyber expertise matters for GCC insurers
Cyber risk has moved higher on corporate and executive agendas across the GCC, driven by faster digital adoption, increased connectivity across business operations, and the pace of threat evolution. As organizations expand their technology footprint, cyber underwriting has become less about generic risk assessments and more about technical analysis, coverage structure, and the practical resilience measures clients can implement.
Specialist cyber roles can also help insurers manage underwriting consistency, portfolio growth, and alignment with how regulators and market stakeholders view cyber as an operational risk category. In this context, the hiring of a dedicated regional cyber leader is also a signal of how insurers are building internal capability rather than relying solely on shared or centralized underwriting functions.
Construction and infrastructure risk engineering remains a key demand driver
In parallel, construction risk engineering is gaining attention as the region continues to pursue large-scale infrastructure and development programs. Construction risks often involve more than project delays or cost overruns, they can extend to design and delivery assumptions, contract and stakeholder requirements, engineering governance, and the ways projects manage safety, quality, and operational readiness.
By naming a senior risk engineer for construction in Dubai, HDI Global is positioning technical risk assessment as a core input to underwriting decisions. In practice, risk engineering roles can support more granular evaluation of hazards, documentation standards, and mitigation measures, helping insurers translate technical information into underwriting actions that affect both pricing and coverage terms.
Market implications for brokers and corporate buyers
For brokers, specialist underwriting teams typically improve the quality and speed of submissions, especially where coverage requires detailed technical inputs. For corporate buyers, the focus on cyber and construction suggests an underwriting environment that increasingly expects clients to demonstrate resilience planning, incident readiness, and controls that map to risk realities.
In the Middle East, where both cyber exposure and infrastructure complexity can vary sharply by sector, having dedicated cyber and construction capability can also matter for how insurers coordinate coverage across lines. That can include aligning policy terms with how the risk is actually managed, rather than treating cyber or construction exposure as purely static categories.
HDI Global also points to recent financial performance
HDI Global says the Dubai expansion is supported by its broader performance. In its first-quarter 2026 results, the insurer reported operating profit of EUR 207 million, compared with EUR 195 million in the same period of 2025. Net income rose 8% to EUR 152 million, and the company said its combined ratio improved slightly to 91.0%, supported by disciplined underwriting and investment income.
While quarterly results are not a direct measure of Middle East underwriting outcomes, profitability and loss management remain critical for insurers when scaling specialty capabilities. The company’s figures also reinforce the emphasis on underwriting discipline cited in the company’s broader update.
What to watch next in the region
As cyber and construction exposures evolve, further moves by insurers to build specialist teams in Dubai and across the GCC are likely to continue. Key developments to monitor include how underwriting requirements tighten around cyber controls, how engineering-led assessments are incorporated into project risk evaluation, and whether insurers expand product structures to reflect regulatory and operational changes.
For now, HDI Global’s hires highlight a clear direction in corporate and specialty insurance in the Middle East, more technical underwriting, more regional expertise, and a stronger emphasis on translating risk analysis into resilience-focused coverage.
