Alvarez & Marsal is expanding its Insurance Advisory Services practice to keep pace with growing market demand for specialized knowledge and hands-on insurance and enterprise risk management expertise.

Joining the team, led by managing director and head of A&M Insurance Advisory Services Jim McDermott, is long-time insurance industry executive and managing director Thomas Mulhare in New York. The firm also announced new joiners: senior directors John Capasso and Rudy Dimmling in New York, and Patrick Hughes in Chicago.

“A&M brings 30 years of experience in anticipating and mitigating the consequences of risk on business operations and performance,” said McDermott. “Clients have been increasingly looking to us for guidance. Expanding our dedicated Insurance Advisory practice is a natural next step in A&M’s evolution. Our operational heritage positions us to provide unmatched advisory and interim management services across the insurance industry spectrum and company lifecycle.”

Over the last 25 years, Mulhare has worked exclusively in the insurance industry with more than 150 insurance entities. Prior to joining A&M, he worked at EisnerAmper, a New York area CPA firm, where he started the insurance practice and built it into the fifth-largest insurance accounting and consulting practice in Metro New York. Before that, he was a Senior Partner at Arthur Andersen, where he led the Northeast Insurance Practice and Worldwide Actuarial Practice.

Capasso brings significant experience in alternative risk solutions to A&M, and will lead the Captive Risk Management division within the Insurance Advisory Services practice. Before joining A&M, he was managing director of Captive Planning Associates, a captive management firm he founded, where he provided alternative risk solutions to middle-market, privately held businesses.

Dimmling will assist corporate clients with stabilizing and enhancing financial and operational performance for stakeholders and policy holders. Prior to joining A&M, he was chief operating officer at Trenwick America Reinsurance Corporation, as well as a senior vice president and chief administrative officer at Centre Group Holdings.

Hughes will lead regulatory initiatives within the group. As former special deputy receiver and chief executive officer of the Office of the Special Deputy Receiver, he led business transformations in productivity, financial reporting and technology, and oversaw record creditor distributions, estate closings and productivity achievements.