QBE appoints Jamie Thompson to lead data centres push

QBE has appointed Jamie Thompson as Global Director of Data Centres, a newly created role.

Based in London, Thompson will lead the insurer's work to build an integrated offering for data centre risks as global demand for capacity rises. He will coordinate teams across underwriting, claims, risk engineering and distribution.

Market growth

The appointment marks a more focused push by QBE into a part of the insurance market linked to rapid growth in digital infrastructure. Data centres have become a growing area of concern for insurers as operators expand facilities to support cloud services and heavier use of artificial intelligence.

Industry forecasts cited by QBE show global data centre capacity is expected to double between 2026 and 2030, with nearly 100 gigawatts of power added. The same outlook points to infrastructure investment of as much as USD $3 trillion by 2030.

That backdrop is shaping insurers' views of the sector, where risks span physical assets, energy supply, equipment resilience, business interruption and wider operational dependencies. Thompson will bring together expertise from several parts of the business to develop a global approach.

QBE experience

He has spent more than 20 years at QBE and most recently led the Financial Lines team for the group's International Markets business. Earlier in his career, he served as Director for QBE Canada.

Thompson has experience across underwriting and portfolio management, including responsibility for complex books of business. His move into the new role comes as insurers reassess how to cover increasingly interconnected infrastructure assets.

"The data centre sector is rapidly growing and evolving with the advent of AI. Sheer size and scale, power and redundancy requirements, choice of locations around the world mean that the sector increasingly needs adapted solutions backed by deep expertise and global reach," said Cécile Fresneau, Managing Director, QBE Insurance Division.

Risk exposure

The creation of a dedicated global role suggests data centres are becoming a distinct area of underwriting focus, rather than sitting only within broader property, engineering or financial lines portfolios. The sector's expansion has also drawn more investor money into new facilities, creating larger concentrations of insured value.

Operators face a mix of established and emerging exposures, including construction and commissioning risks, fire and equipment failure, cooling and power issues, cyber-related disruption, and the knock-on effects outages can have for customers and local communities.

QBE's planned approach will combine multiple products into a single proposition. It did not disclose financial targets for the new unit or specify which markets would be prioritised first.

Global approach

"Coverage gaps are emerging and the complex and interconnected risks associated with data centres will need sophisticated solutions. To provide a globally consistent approach, we will develop a proposition incorporating multiple products, looking at the complete data lifecycle and broader risk landscape for businesses and communities," said Jamie Thompson, Global Director of Data Centres, QBE.

QBE is part of QBE Insurance Group, which reported gross written premium of USD $24.0 billion for 2025.