Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE: AGO) (the Company, or together with its subsidiaries, Assured Guaranty) announced today that Assured Guaranty has appointed David A. Buzen as Senior Managing Director of its newly formed Alternative Investments group. Mr. Buzen was previously President and Chief Executive Officer of CIFG Holding Inc. (CIFG).

Additionally, Stan Cotek, formerly Treasurer and Managing Director of Finance and IT Systems at CIFG, has joined the Alternative Strategies group as Managing Director, and Robert M. Forant, formerly Chief Operating Officer of AIG Global Risk Solutions & Multinational, has joined as Director.

“We have known and worked with Dave Buzen for many years and seen his leadership ability in a variety of financial settings in and out of the financial guaranty industry. He is one of the best people we could have found to lead the development of our Alternative Investments group,” said Dominic Frederico, President and Chief Executive Officer. “We’re also pleased to welcome onto his team two experienced, highly skilled professionals, Stan Cotek and Robert Forant.”

The Alternative Investments group will focus on deploying a portion of Assured Guaranty’s excess capital to pursue acquisitions and develop new business opportunities that benefit from the company’s core competencies and credit expertise and are in line with its risk profile. As of March 31, 2016, Assured Guaranty’s shareholders’ equity totaled $6.1 billion, and it had $11.2 billion of assets in its investment portfolio.

“Assured Guaranty has successfully executed alternative strategies to build shareholder value while protecting the financial strength of its core financial guaranty business,” said Mr. Buzen. “I’m excited to lead a department dedicated to finding and implementing more of these opportunities.”

Mr. Buzen has over 30 years of experience in the financial guaranty insurance industry and financial services. At CIFG, which he joined as Chief Operating and Chief Financial Officer in 2009, he developed and implemented a remediation strategy that restored solvency and improved the operations and control environment, which made it possible for Assured Guaranty to acquire the company on July 1, 2016. Prior to his years at CIFG, Mr. Buzen was Chief Financial Officer of Churchill Financial, a commercial finance and asset management company. Earlier, he headed DEPFA Bank’s municipal reinvestment and financial guarantee businesses, after serving as Chief Operating Officer of ACE Financial Solutions, which acquired Capital Re Corp. (now Assured Guaranty Corp.), where he had been Chief Financial Officer. He began his career in the financial guaranty industry at Ambac Financial Group.

Mr. Cotek held various financial management positions during 12 years at CIFG, culminating in his role as Treasurer and Managing Director of Finance and IT Systems. Prior to CIFG, he was Director of IT Finance at Lexent Inc., a telecom infrastructure company, Internal Controller at BNP Paribas, and a KPMG Peat Marwick management consultant.

Mr. Forant held successive finance, systems and operations roles at American International Group, where he developed solutions in a wide range of property/casualty, life and alternative insurance product and risk financing areas, beginning in 1984. A Certified Public Accountant, he began his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Assured Guaranty Ltd. is a publicly traded Bermuda-based holding company. Its operating subsidiaries provide credit enhancement products to the U.S. and international public finance, infrastructure and structured finance markets. More information on Assured Guaranty Ltd. and its subsidiaries can be found at AssuredGuaranty.com.