Scouting report · ACGL

Nicolas Papadopoulo

Chief Executive Officer and Class III Director, ACGL since 2024-10src

Arch lifer since 2001; ran reinsurance, then insurance; CEO since Oct 2024

—thin record

Not ranked yet

Scouting sheet

as of 24 Sep 2026

Delivers guidance—0 beat · 1 met · 0 missed · 0 withdrawn — fewer than 4, not scored

Answers the question980 dodges in 46 answers on 2 calls

Capital allocation—company five-year record: compounds — inherited: the five-year record is mostly a predecessor's

Pay design8077% performance-conditioned · roe, strategic, book value, relative tsr, time only · 94.1% for · 0.33% of net income

Skin in the game76stake worth $157.6m, 11× last year's pay

Age: 63src
In the role: 2 yr
Promises scored: 1
Hit rate: 100%
Dodges / 100 answers: 0.0
Airtime on calls: 43%

Every promise, oldest firstM

What to weigh

Watch 5

2024 reported pay was $31.8m, driven by a one-time 'Outperformance Award' on the leadership transition: $16.1m of premium-priced options (strike $161.24) plus $6.9m of time-vested restricted sharessrc
Say-on-pay fell to 84.7% at the 2025 meeting (93.9-95.3% in 2021-2024); the company attributes it to the one-time transition awards. It recovered to 94.1% in May 2026src
2025 bonus paid at the 200% maximum (financial and strategic parts both at 200%) in a year when TSR ranked 10th percentile of peers; for 2026 his bonus target rose to 270% of salary from 200% and his LTI target to 785% from 560%src
Holds a personal $2.5m stake in Premia, an Arch-sponsored reinsurer that does business with Arch subsidiaries (disclosed, reviewed by disinterested directors)src
Thin say-vs-do record: only one of the seven S8 rows is his (the California wildfire loss estimate, met at the top of the range); the CFO makes nearly every checkable statementsrc

In their favour 2

Long in-house tenure across both reinsurance and insurance, and appointment through a planned succession rather than an outside searchsrc
Pay mix: 77% of 2025 target pay performance-based; hedging prohibited; CEO ownership guideline 6x salary, all NEOs in compliancesrc

Career

2024-10 – now
Arch Capital Groupsrc
Chief Executive Officer and director
2021-01 – 2024-10
Arch Capital Groupsrc
President and Chief Underwriting Officer; CEO of Arch Worldwide Insurance Group
2017-09 – 2020-12
Arch Capital Groupsrc
Chairman and CEO of Arch Worldwide Insurance Group; Chief Underwriting Officer for Property and Casualty Operations
2014-07 – 2017-09
Arch Capital Groupsrc
Chairman and CEO of Arch Reinsurance Group
2001-12 – 2014-07
Arch Reinsurance Ltd. (Bermuda)src
A variety of underwriting roles

Undated in the sources

Sorema N.A. Reinsurance Group (U.S. subsidiary of Groupama)src, Various positions
French Ministry of Finance, Insurance Departmentsrc, Insurance examiner

Not located: Years before December 2001 (Sorema N.A. and the French Ministry of Finance) are named but undated in the 8-K and proxies read; the last ten years are fully sourced

Achievements

Spent 23 years inside Arch before the top job: underwriter at Arch Re from December 2001, then head of reinsurance (2014), of insurance (2017) and President & CUO (2021)src
Named CEO under the board's succession plan in October 2024, succeeding Marc Grandissonsrc
Arch's GAAP net income was $4,312m in FY2024 and $4,399m in FY2025, his first full year as CEOsrc
2025 consolidated combined ratio 82.8%, 89th percentile of the proxy's performance peer group; TSR for the year was 10th percentilesrc
Beneficially owns 1,659,915 shares including exercisable options and unvested performance shares (March 2026)src

Education

École Polytechnique (France), Graduatesrc
École Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Administration Économique (ENSAE, France), Master's Statisticssrc

Background

Family The 8-K announcing his appointment states there are no family relationships between him and any other director or executive officersrc
Boards Sat on the board of COFACE SA (Arch is a shareholder) as an Arch nominee; stepped down in February 2025 to concentrate on his role at Arch and was replaced by another Arch executivesrc
Service Earlier in his career was an insurance examiner at the French Ministry of Finance's Insurance Departmentsrc
Investing Personally co-invested $2.5m for a 0.625% stake in Premia, the run-off reinsurer Arch and Kelso sponsored in 2017; Arch provides services and a quota-share treaty to it. Disclosed as a related-person transactionsrc
Other Employment agreement (2017, amended 2024-10-13): on termination without cause or for good reason, salary for the six-month notice period plus up to 24 months (less garden leave), 200% of target bonus, a pro-rated target bonus and up to 18 months of medical coversrc
Other Received Arch-investee board fees paid in euros ($43,081 for 2023, $26,923 for 2024), included in All Other Compensationsrc

Pay

Salary and otherBonus, stock, options, incentive

2023$7.1m
2024$31.8m
2025$14.6m

The table

Year	Salary	Bonus	Stock	Options	Incentive	Other	Total
2023	$850k	$0	$2.3m	$734k	$2.8m	$442k	$7.1m	src
2024	$993k	$0	$9.6m	$17.0m	$3.7m	$473k	$31.8m	src
2025	$1.3m	$0	$5.5m	$1.8m	$5.2m	$786k	$14.6m	src

Bonus pays on: Cash bonus: 70% group ROE against the formula-plan ROE scale (target 13.34% for 2025), 30% strategic goals; target 200% of salary, capped at 2x target; 2025 paid 200%
Long-term award pays on: 55% performance shares on 3-year adjusted tangible book value per share growth (target 11%/yr, threshold 6%, max 16%) with a +/-25% relative TSR modifier; 25% options; 20% time-vested restricted shares; all vest over three yearssrc

Pay at risk 77% performance-conditioned
Pays on returns roe, strategic, book value, relative tsr, time only
Shareholder vote 94.1% for
Pay vs profit 0.33% of net income

CEO pay ratio 105 : 1

What they own

$157.6m at the last price on file — 11× last year's pay
1,659,915 shares of ACGL · 0.47% of the companysrc
as of 2026-03-09
Last 12 months: bought $0, sold $2.1msrc

The promise ledger

1 scored · 0 open

Result	What was promised	Where it is scored	How
M Met	Q1 2025 · California wildfires · net loss $450–550m	ACGL row 3	said it

Questions dodged

0.0 per 100 answers

None logged on the calls reviewed.

Calls reviewed

FY2026-Q1.roic.json — 25 answers, 41% of the words
FY2026-Q2.roic.json — 21 answers, 44% of the words

Sources

Filing Arch Capital Group DEF 14A (accession 0000947484-26-000038) · 2026-03-24
Filing Arch Capital Group DEF 14A (accession 0000947484-25-000031) · 2025-03-25
Filing Arch Capital Group 8-K Item 5.02, CEO transition (0000947484-24-000123) · 2024-10-15
Filing Arch Capital Group 8-K Item 5.02, Gansberg departure and single-President model (0000947484-26-000094) · 2026-06-03
Filing Arch Capital Group 8-K Item 5.07, 2026 annual meeting results (0000947484-26-000063) · 2026-05-07
Filing SEC XBRL companyconcept us-gaap/NetIncomeLoss, CIK 947484 (FY2025 10-K, 0000947484-26-000017) · 2026-02-26
Filing Form 4, Nicolas Papadopoulo (reporting CIK 1345284), option exercise and sale of 2026-03-10 (0001345284-26-000005) · 2026-03-12
Filing Form 4, Nicolas Papadopoulo, annual grant of 2026-03-03 (0001345284-26-000003) · 2026-03-05
Call transcript ACGL Q4 2024 earnings call (2025-02-11), ROIC.ai; he gave the $450-550m wildfire estimate
Web search result WebSearch: COFACE SA press release 2025-02-20, Yves Charbonneau co-opted to the Board replacing Nicolas Papadopoulo (search summary) · 2026-09-24