Shows
The Voice of InsuranceEp261 Dave Matcham & Chris Jones IUA: You've got to show tangible value to membersToday’s Episode is a really enjoyable two-hander.
After over twenty years running the IUA (or the International Underwriting Association, to spell it out in full) Dave Matcham has just passed his CEO role over to Chris Jones.
So this episode serves a double mission. The first is to mark the extraordinary career of Dave Matcham, the London Market’s longest-serving CEO and someone who has helped guide the market through more than 20 years of change.
With Dave we look back on some of the most significant milestones and sometimes tumultuous events shaping a li...2025-07-1554 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp259 Mark Allan Ki: A chance to stand out from the crowdAs the global subscription market digitises, the roles of market leaders and followers are becoming much more clearly demarcated.
There are businesses designed to be leaders with large investments in class-specific expertise and specialist distribution relationships who are looking to align followers and consortium partners behind them.
There is also a parallel class of follow-only underwriters looking to support and amplify those same leaders. It’s a modern twist on the oldest symbiotic relationship in the subscription market.
Ki is an example of a wholly digital business that is looking to become the ul...2025-07-0150 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp258 Mark Wheeler: Not capital-liteI really enjoyed recording this podcast. That’s probably because since I last spoke to Mark Wheeler, Co-founder and Co-CEO of Mosaic Insurance, a full three-and-a-half years ago, he has been able to execute and begin to reap the rewards of all the plans he laid out in Episode 99.
There’s nothing like a sub-80 combined ratio to put a spring in your step and validate the vision you had when you founded the business, particularly when it comes relatively early in a start-up’s life.
Mosaic has now built out its global platform and wrote...2025-06-1740 min
The Reinsurance Podcast#92 - Mark Geoghegan: The Voice of InsuranceIn this episode of the Reinsurance Podcast, Jerad and Ben are joined by Mark Geoghegan, the voice behind The Voice of Insurance podcast. They delve into the evolving world of reinsurance, discuss the innovative solutions being developed, and explore the industry's latest trends with Mark's insights. The conversation also touches on the significance of AI and data in reshaping insurance practices, highlighting the industry's journey towards digital transformation and its impact on efficiency and customer service.
EPISODE LINKS:
Mark’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-geoghegan-852077a/
The Voice of...2024-03-0541 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp180 Craig Kingaby CEO Meridian & Mark Heath CEO Acies: Playing our own gameThe older we get the more we lament the passing of the great personalities in the marketplace. Over an after-work drink we tend to reminisce about the entrepreneurial characters of old and how we wish there were more of their kind today. I know I do.
Well, today’s guests are proving that this is a myth caused by old age because they are some of the most singular insurance people I have had on the programme to date.
Craig Kingaby CEO of Meridian (Left) and Mark Heath CEO of Acies MGU (Right) both have va...2023-08-291h 00The Voice of InsuranceEp139 Mark Cloutier Group CEO Aspen: Still taking volatility downMark Cloutier is a dream guest.
And that’s not just because he’s the person some of the smartest financial minds in the industry turn to to shepherd and shape their strategic turnaround investments.
Mark Cloutier knows the insurance industry inside and out and from top to bottom, but what makes him a great podcast guest is his openness and willingness to talk about how the insurance, reinsurance and capital markets fit together and interact with each other.
He’s also one of the most easygoing people you’ll meet. His job must inv...2022-10-1137 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 125 Jonathan Turner CEO of Gallagher Specialty UK - Every insurer is talking about growthToday’s guest is someone I first met almost thirty years ago.
In the intervening time he has had a glittering career, most of which has been on the underwriting side of the fence with senior roles at QBE, Brit and most recently at Gallagher’s Pen Underwriting MGA.
But now Jonathan Turner is the CEO at Gallagher Specialty UK, he is firmly on the broking side of the box for the first time in his career.
In this lively podcast we get to the heart of what is a really vigorous and fasc...2022-06-2432 min
The Reinsurance Podcast#15 - Mark Geoghegan: Podcasting, Journalism, and the (Re)insurance IndustryWe’re joined this week by Mark Geoghagen, host of The Voice of Insurance podcast and former editorial director of The Insurance Insider. The guys delve into Mark’s background as a broker and later career as an insurance journalist, the industry’s need for a principle reinsurance software, and what makes a fascinating podcast guest.
EPISODE LINKS:
Mark's Twitter: https://twitter.com/GeogheganMC
Mark's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-geoghegan-852077a
Mark's Website: https://www.thevoiceofinsurance.com
The Voice of Insurance podcast: https://open.spotif...2022-04-2637 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 112 Alastair Swift WTW: We can grow exponentially in SpecialtyToday’s guest is a broking veteran known across the London Market and beyond.
Alastair Swift is Head of Corporate Risk and Broking for Global Lines of Business at WTW as well as CEO of Willis Limited.
Recently new WTW CEO Carl Hess has spoken about his desire for the group to get some of its swagger back and I think this interview could mark the beginning of that process for the firm.
Following the damaging twists and turns of the Aon merger saga of the past two years and the eventual sale of...2022-02-2239 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 99 Mark Wheeler Mosaic Insurance: No Exit PlanMark Wheeler is a Lloyd’s market person through and through. In this interview he even refers to himself as a “Lloyd’s groupie”
That’s why it was great to meet him face to face in his London office within 100 metres of the Lloyd’s building.
We went deeply into what his new venture Mosaic is really all about.
The vision is original and the plan is incredibly ambitious.
Mosaic is trying to bring the core advantages of London syndication and very detailed specialty know-how much closer to clients around the world th...2021-11-0941 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 83 The $60bn broker: Olga Collins CEO Worldwide Broker Network (WBN)I have to admit that today’s guest took me by surprise. Could she be the most powerful female CEO in the world?
Well, maybe.
She sits at the head of a global broking organisation that has six billion dollars in revenue and handles around sixty billion dollars in gross premiums.
If Willis and Aon finally merge, Olga Collins will be the CEO of the world’s third-largest broking organisation.
In this podcast we go deep into the detail of the Worldwide Broker Network and how it has set itself up to co...2021-06-0829 minThe Voice of InsuranceSpecial Episode: The Power of Purpose with Steve Hearn CEO of Corant Global and Delta V PartnersToday’s special episode is all about how to build a company culture that helps your business to win.
To this end I was very lucky to be joined by John Fay MBE (pictured bottom right) and Edward Gordon Lennox (pictured bottom left) of Delta V Partners to help me dig deeply into the subject.
John and Edward are experts in the field who are much in demand across all sectors and in multiple countries around the world.
They talk our language and know how to get the best out of us. They do...2021-06-0445 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 82 David Bearman CEO Aventum: Don’t walk into a crowded roomIt is only a recently rebranding exercise that has made the size and scale of today's guest's broking and MGA operation come into view.
David Bearman is the founder and CEO of London-based Aventum, a group that houses the Rokstone MGA and broker Consilium and controls over £600mn in gross written premium.
The group has been around for 25 years but has only just put its head above the parapet and started to show itself to the market.
I am really glad to have David on the show. He reminds me of the great b...2021-06-0125 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 81 Ash Bathia CEO Probitas 1492: Driving your own destinyToday’s guest is someone I have known for almost 30 years. That’s because I used to broker business to him back in the 1990s when I was working in the London Market.
Back then he was making a name for himself as a lead market in the international casualty class at UK composite Eagle Star.
As my career changed completely his took off and at QBE Europe he swiftly rose the ranks to become its most senior underwriting executive.
Then eight years ago he left to pursue the dream of founding a Lloy...2021-05-2555 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 80 Matthew Shaw CUO of TMK: The most submissions for a decadeAs Chief Underwriting Officer of Tokio Marine Kiln (TMK) Matthew Shaw has one of the top ten individual underwriting jobs in the London market, marshalling a stamp capacity of one and a half billion pounds at one of Lloyd’s best-known lead markets, Syndicate 510.
In many ways this business is a microcosm of the London Market as a whole.
A soft market fall into loss was followed by significant re-underwriting.
Then the business bounced significantly back into profit in 2019, only to take a large short-tail hit from Covid in 2020, which it has weathered un...2021-05-1839 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 79 Neil Eckert and Trevor Carvey of Conduit Re: Big enough to be impactful but small enough to be nimbleExecutive Chairman Neil Eckert and Group CEO Trevor Carvey are the team behind Conduit Re, a new London-listed Bermuda-based reinsurer.
Neil is one of the insurance industry’s most successful serial entrepreneurs, so when someone of his experience and pedigree senses an opportunity we should all take notice.
Conduit’s single-location pure reinsurance design is quite different from its class of 2020 peers and here we go deep into the pair’s thinking behind why they have set things up the way they have.
Neil and Trevor are direct and easy to talk to and I...2021-05-1137 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 78 Steve McGill: Building Excitement and ScaleToday’s podcast with Steve McGill, Founder and CEO of McGill and Partners was recorded live. The Voice of Insurance was invited to produce the opening fireside chat at the highly successful Insurtech 3 point 0 insurtech event and we thought it would be fun for a change.
Doing things truly live is always different and often unexpected.
You’ll find this one a bit faster than usual – that’s not because I have suddenly lost my manners and enjoying interrupting but because I am keeping to a strict time schedule and sometimes need to move things along so...2021-05-0428 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 77 Stephen Catlin & Paul Brand Convex: Being ready ahead of the marketToday’s guests head one the largest and best-placed new businesses in the market.
This is because it had a long head-start on the class of 2020.
Before the market turn became obvious last year it already had $1.7bn in capital committed and underwriting teams in place. Then with the hardening in full swing it accelerated its growth plan and almost doubled that capital base.
Convex’s Chairman and CEO Stephen Catlin and Deputy CEO Paul Brand have had impeccable timing and are looking to use the benefit of all their long experience building Catl...2021-04-2749 minThe Voice of InsuranceEP 76 Keith Wolfe President Swiss Re P&C US: A complete view of the world's biggest marketToday’s guest has one of the biggest single jobs in our business.
As President of Property & Casualty for Swiss Re in the US Keith Wolfe has huge responsibility
This is because on most measures his employer is the largest writer of reinsurance in the US.
This gives him unrivalled visibility on what is the largest insurance market in the world.
I have met Keith many times in the past, chairing him at US-based conferences.
He is always good-humoured and always says it like it is in ways that yo...2021-04-2038 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 75 Greg Collins CEO of Miller: A speedboat among supertankersToday’s guest is the leader of one of London’s oldest independent broking houses.
Greg Collins is CEO of Miller, which via major new investment has just extricated itself from the Willis Towers Watson Group.
In this podcast we get right to the heart of why the firm’s innovative experiment with Big-three ownership didn’t work out and what this wholesale specialty broker plans to do with its new-found freedom.
Greg comes across as someone completely on top of his game and speaks like he has had a weight lifted off his shou...2021-04-1332 minThe Voice of InsuranceSpecial Episode: Introducing McKenzie Intelligence Services with founder Forbes McKenzieToday’s guest is an amazing person with an incredibly interesting story to tell.
After 10 years in the British military and distinguished service in Iraq, Forbes McKenzie was determined to apply the skills he had learned in military intelligence in the civilian world.
A decade and lots of hard work later, McKenzie Intelligence Services (MIS) is bringing real-time intelligence to bear on natural disasters and manmade events alike and has won a major tender to provide its services across the Lloyd’s market.
As Forbes describes in the podcast, users of the firm’s GEO...2021-04-0929 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 74 Matthew Wilson Group CEO Brit: Pretending Brit didn't existToday’s guest is an example to those of us who feel we ought to change with the times but might not feel we are fully equipped to do so.
Matthew Wilson is the Group CEO of Brit and is a Lloyd’s man through and through.
He has spent most of his career going about his business in the same analogue way that most of us are familiar with.
Yet he has embarked on a transformation programme at Brit to overhaul everything it does in readiness for a digital future.
A th...2021-04-0646 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 73 Mitch Blaser CEO Mosaic: If you're a hammer everything looks like a nailI really enjoyed interviewing today’s guest.
I think it was because I was picking up on the energy, enthusiasm and buzz emanating from someone who is running a start-up business.
Mitch Blaser, the CEO of Mosaic has done this before and it is his clarity of vision and purpose that shines through our discussion.
He has the benefit of experience to know what he would do differently and he also has a very clear idea of how to leverage the advantages of a single clean balance sheet with new investors and no le...2021-03-3043 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 72 Colin Thompson Group CEO Nexus: Eat your own cookingThis week’s podcast is a great encounter with a UK MGA pioneer at the top of his game.
Colin Thompson is the CEO of Nexus Group, a firm he founded in London 13 years ago.
That business is projecting punchy organic growth of a third this year to $600mn in premiums written.
It is also on the hunt for ever larger acquisitions and is looking to back some of its own underwriting with a risk-bearing entity to show its paper providers that it has real skin in the game.
During our ch...2021-03-2333 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 71 Ross Howard Global Executive Chairman of Lockton Re: Why knowledge is key and kingToday’s guest is one of the best-known and most experienced executives in the reinsurance broking world.
Ross Howard is Global Executive Chairman of Lockton Re and has launched himself into a major project to help build a challenger reinsurance broker for the Lockton Group.
In this podcast we find out why he thinks the current market opportunities are some of the best he has seen in his long career and why, provided you have the right platform as a base, knowledge, expertise and relationships are more important than they have ever been.
I...2021-03-1636 minThe Voice of InsuranceSpecial Episode: Bonkers or Brilliant? A fresh perspective on innovation from Insurtech Gateway’s Robert Lumley and Stephen BrittainThis episode could easily be called “everything you wanted to know about insurtech but were afraid to ask.”
This is because today’s guests are insurtech pioneers who spend their time finding new insurance ideas and the entrepreneurs behind them.
They knock the rough edges off, apply expertise, lend regulatory licences so that ideas can be tested and make connections with incumbent insurers as well as investors. They also deploy their own venture capital funds into the companies they find.
In short they provide one of the few full service platforms for innovative new ve...2021-03-1233 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 70 Greg Hendrick CEO Vantage Group: Being what the market will let us beToday’s guest is one of the industry’s brightest stars and I think the podcast you are about the listen to amply proves why he has earned that moniker.
The Voice of insurance has also been lucky enough to speak to him at an exciting time for him and the industry itself.
A veteran of the Bermuda class of 1992, he is back again with a substantial start-up looking to capitalise on major opportunities in the global wholesale specialty insurance and reinsurance market.
Here Greg Hendrick the CEO of Vantage Group runs us throu...2021-03-0940 minThe Voice of InsuranceSpecial Episode: Introducing Supercede with founders Jerad Leigh and Ben RoseToday’s special guests are technology entrepreneurs looking to digitise and revolutionise the reinsurance marketplace.
Their radical free-to-use platform has the goal of making the cumbersome submission and placement process pain-free for practitioners.
But with these two there’s a big difference. Both Jerad Leigh and Ben Rose of Supercede gave up successful careers in the underwriting, broking and advisory side of reinsurance to found their business.
Past attempts at reinsurance platforms have tended to focus on getting the boardrooms of the biggest players signed up and mandating usage on the ground but as f...2021-03-0547 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 69 Pina Albo CEO Hamilton Group: The wait is overAfter an extended build-out Pina Albo’s Hamilton Group now has significant Lloyd’s, Bermuda and Dublin platforms covering specialty insurance, reinsurance and third-party asset management and is building further capabilities on the ground in the US E&S market via an MGA structure.
It’s also fully committed to a tech-enabled US brokered small commercial joint venture operation in Attune.
Listen to Pina as the group moves to the execution phase of its strategy and looks to be rewarded for the patience it has shown throughout the prolonged soft market into which it was born.2021-03-0229 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 68 Steve Hearn CEO Corant Global: One broker, many brandsToday’s guest is a broking CEO on an ambitious mission to grow global revenues many times with the backing of a strategic owner.
That may sound familiar to regular listeners, but Steve Hearn of Corant Global is going about things quite differently.
At a time when most broker holding companies are at pains to hive up all their underlying brands into an overarching global brand identity, Steve is allowing multiple broking houses to flourish under the newly-minted Corant banner.
A veteran of senior executive positions at large and small brokers alike, Steve no...2021-02-2346 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 67 Charles Mathias Group CRO Fidelis: A market not lacking capital, but profitThis week’s guest is a longstanding and integral member of one of the most successful underwriting teams in the specialty insurance and reinsurance world.
Charles Mathias was an original member of staff at Lancashire and is now a core member of the team at Fidelis.
As Chief Risk officer and board member he has total visibility of Fidelis’s strategy and here he doesn’t duck any questions.
I was surprised by how open he was with me about which segments of the market the now capital-loaded Fidelis is finding most attractive as wel...2021-02-1648 minThe Voice of InsuranceSpecial Episode: Introducing Worry + Peace with founder James YorkIn my job I talk to a lot of entrepreneurs and particularly insurtech entrepreneurs.
Very often I find that they know their tech but really haven’t yet got to understand the insurance world.
And that often means that they are solving problems that perhaps don’t exist in the minds of insurance people and their business are unlikely to succeed.
Well today I’m talking to a start-up founder who has insurance running through his veins.
James York knows the insurance value chain inside and out.
Because of that h...2021-02-1235 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 66 Nick Cook BMS: A Bullish time to buildNick Cook of BMS Group is a man in a hurry to make the most of global opportunities to grow the 41-year old firm he runs.
Nick is refreshingly straightforward and to the point and here we get detail on BMS’s ambitious global buildout away from its more traditional markets in London and North America and into Latin America, Asia and Europe.
We also get a strong view on the opportunities being thrown up by big broker M&A as well as the capital factors driving substantial investment and consolidation at independents.
Ni...2021-02-0942 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 65 Matthew Moore President Liberty Specialty Markets: Working for mutual advantageToday we're talking to Matthew Moore President & Managing Director at Liberty Specialty Markets – LSM.
Matthew is one of the rising stars of the London Market and is currently serving as the chair of industry trade body the London Market Group.
Yet his role is global in nature.
He oversees a specialty, wholesale and reinsurance operation with gross written premiums of around $7bn of which London business is a minority.
In this wide-ranging podcast we get the benefit of this global perspective on opportunities in the hardening market as well as going in...2021-02-0242 min
InsTech - insurance & innovation with Matthew Grant & Robin MerttensRobin Merttens & Mark Geoghegan: E-Trading Platforms: Challenges, Opportunities and Imperative (122)Robin Merttens talks to guest host Mark Geoghegan ahead of the release of our new report on e-trading of reinsurance and complex risks.
E-Trading Platforms: Challenges, Opportunities and Imperative examines the renewed interest in the platforms space, accelerated by Covid-19, Lloyd’s Blueprint Two and the needs of increasingly demanding customers.
Talking points include:
What’s needed to help e-trading catch on
The lessons learned so far
Who is doing what in the platform space
How to get brokers on board
The role that Lloyd’s has to play
E-Trading Platforms: Challenges, Opportunities and Imper...2021-01-2730 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 64 Sean McGovern CEO of AXA XL UK and Lloyd’s: Re-set and re-launchToday’s podcast is a meeting with a senior market figure most of us have known for many years.
Sean McGovern served in different board level capacities at Lloyd’s for just over 2 decades, before leaving to join the then XL Catlin in 2016 ahead of its 2018 acquisition by AXA.
Last summer he was made CEO of AXA XL’s UK and Lloyd’s business – the first time he has held a CEO post.
This interview is all about his plans for the role now that the difficult remedial actions aimed at turning around the large...2021-01-2639 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 63 The broker of the future: Clyde Bernstein, Head of Broking, Willis Towers Watson GBThis podcast is all about looking to the future of broking.
In a world of automatic, algorithmically controlled capacity where huge rivers of data flow direct from insureds and reinsureds to carriers and beyond where does this leave the broker?
Brokers and technological change haven’t necessarily always gone hand in hand in our markets.
It was brokers that spurned the early versions of electronic placing and constantly worried about whether they would be disintermediated.
But these days a new broker is emerging – one less tied up in extracting remuneration out of t...2021-01-1941 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 62 Fully capitalised, but rationally hard: the 2021 market with David Flandro of HXToday’s guest is one of the industry’s smartest analysts and it is great to welcome him back to the show.
David Flandro is the Managing Director of Analytics at HX, the tech and research-focused part of the Howden Group and today we are dissecting the state of the market after the 1.1.21 renewals.
David has had a long career in the financial markets and at major broking houses and is one of the best people I know at expressing often very complicated ideas and theories in the plainest of English.
He also has...2021-01-1232 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 61 A healing market: James Vickers, Chair Willis Re InternationalToday’s guest is one of the industry’s most experienced and most respected reinsurance brokers with an incredibly broad and deep perspective to share on the industry.
His broking house Willis Re is always first out of the blocks after the major renewal dates with its first view reports into the state of the reinsurance market
Given the exceptional nature of this particular renewal I was delighted to have some time with James Vickers Chair, Willis Re International.
We spoke at length about the hardening market, the impact of the class of 2020 and of...2021-01-0433 min
The Economics of Well-Being#65: Leah Geoghegan: Restoring Functional Cellular Health and Well-beingLeah Geoghegan: Restoring Functional Cellular Health and Well-being
Leah Geoghegan (HNP AGNP-C ) is a board-certified Adult Primary Care and Functional Medicine Nurse Practitioner who helps individuals overcome chronic illness and achieve optimal wellness by naturally balancing the body, restoring function, and alleviating pain.
She has recently founded a new enterprise called Emergence.health
Leah approaches care by blending Western and Eastern medicine practices based on patient preference, evidence-based data, and her clinical expertise. Her assessment methods are scientifically proven and rooted in asking good questions, active listening, and detailed lab testing. She prioritizes...2020-12-2446 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 60 Fear breeds discipline, alignment and innovation: Talbir Bains CEO Volante GlobalToday’s guest is someone highly thought of in the London Market whose skills are in high demand.
Three years ago he set out to start his own business and reshape the MGA model in a highly radical way that seeks to align the agent as closely to the carriers backing them as possible.
Many businesses say they are going to break the mould but what Talbir Bains is trying to achieve at Volante has never been done before.
He and I had been introduced and briefly shaken hands a couple of times ove...2020-12-2236 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 59 Jean-Jacques Henchoz CEO Hannover Re: Lean and keenToday’s guest is a year and a half into a role running the best performing major reinsurer of the past 15 years.
Hannover Re has been a business that has managed to grow profitably in hard and soft markets alike, maintaining a lean structure and keeping underwriting and rigorous capital management to the fore.
With a global market hardening in full swing and one of the most important 1.1 renewals in decades to navigate, I asked Jean-Jacques Henchoz to outline his plans for Hannover Re in a radically changing reinsurance landscape.
Along the way I...2020-12-1547 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 58 Talent and a willingness to take on risk: Julian James CEO International Insurance, Sompo InternationalToday’s guest is one of the most experienced and widely travelled executives in the global insurance world and someone I have been interviewing regularly for the past 15 years.
During that time he has been in the fairly unique position of having worked on either side of the fence for a broker and carriers alike as well as for the Corporation of Lloyd’s.
But what all his roles have had in common have been the formulation and execution of global expansion strategies.
And unsurprisingly that is what he is charged with in his...2020-12-0835 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 57 Color outside the lines: Jim Stanard, Chairman Ariel ReAs journalists we tend to sprinkle superlative terms such as industry legend around a little too liberally.
But today’s guest definitely qualifies.
As a founder of Renaissance Re Jim Stanard helped completely transform the way the industry analyses and underwrites catastrophe risk and cemented Bermuda’s place in the insurance and reinsurance world.
He also co-founded global challenger reinsurance broker Tiger Risk.
Now he is back in his heartland as chair of the newly-independent Ariel Re.
Here we talk about everything you would ever want to know about how...2020-12-0138 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 56 Like 2001, but completely different: Andrew Brooks CEO Ascot GroupAscot has been one of Lloyd’s great success stories of the past 2 decades yet its CEO Andrew Brooks doesn’t have the sort of public profile that one would expect to go with the job.
After many years waiting out the soft market Ascot is now in aggressive expansion mode backed by a very patient, very deep pool of capital.
Given its cautious and prudent track record its diversification plans make for fascinating listening, particularly the thinking behind this historically short-tailed business’s controlled entry into the casualty world.
In our talk Andrew...2020-11-2737 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 55 Controlled aggression: Alex Maloney CEO of Lancashire GroupAlex Maloney has been running the Lancashire group of companies for six-and-a-half years.
For much of that time the business has been keeping its powder dry waiting for a moment to exploit a change in market conditions and resume growth.
That moment seemed to come in Q2 of this year, with a new equity capital raise.
In this interview I ask Alex all about his plans to deploy this renewed firepower.
I found him invigorated and looking to expand aggressively and diversify in the new year as large segments of the...2020-11-2427 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 54 Taking a longer view: Eduardo Pérez de Lema CEO of Mapfre ReMapfre Re is a top 20 global reinsurer but it probably doesn’t have the public profile that this size should command.
Given my insurance work experience in the Spanish market I thought this was a wrong that needed righting.
Mapfre Re has many peculiarities, not least that it is one of the few reinsurers to still be part of a major global insurance group decades after it became fashionable to divest and separate insurance from reinsurance.
It also looks after the reinsurance buying for its global top 20 insurer parent.
This gives it...2020-11-2039 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 53 No end game. The journey to Ithaka: David Howden CEO Howden Group HoldingsI’ve known David Howden for a very long time. When I became a broker in 1992 he was the wholesale D&O specialist who looked after a big book of business for the Spanish broker I worked for.
When Aon took over that broker it was my cue to go off and become a journalist and for him it fired the starting gun on an adventure that doesn’t show any sign of stopping.
That’s why this episode is a bit special. It’s also a bit longer than usual.
A good intervie...2020-11-171h 03The Voice of InsuranceEp 52 Vanessa Macdonald-Smith of Oneglobal broking: Putting people before numbers and enjoying the fun of the chaseIn today’s episode we meet a strong broker of many years’ experience and with subject expertise and contacts that many would take multiple careers to accumulate. She has had a senior career at many of the top independent brokers.
Over recent times I have come to know and respect her as one of those people that always speaks their mind and comes as a breath of fresh air with their own perspective on what is happening in the marketplace.
Vanessa Macdonald Smith is a former CEO of JLT Fac and is now in a new...2020-11-1034 minThe Voice of InsuranceSpecial Episode: Technical Debt and how to get out of it, with Bart Patrick of Duck Creek TechnologiesToday’s guest is someone with a long history of implementing technology into the Insurance Market.
Bart Patrick, Managing Director, Europe for Duck Creek really understands the demands of the industry and the sometimes fractious and strained relationship with technology that it has had over the years.
Well all of that is changing and this discussion is all about how that is going to come about.
With the advent of cloud computing the industry finally has an opportunity to leave technology to the experts and simply get on with doing what it does be...2020-11-0627 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 51 David Walsh and Graeme Newman of CFC Underwriting: 20% organic growth foreverI’ve got to know the interviewees in today’s episode quite well over the last few years.
That means I have been able to follow closely their remarkable journey from small subsidiary of the Hyperion Group to an independent employee-owned MGA writing over 500 million dollars of premium in 2020 and still projecting organic growth of 20% in 2021.
So how have David Walsh and Graeme Newman of CFC Underwriting done it?
I think one of the most striking things is what a partnership these two entrepreneurs make and how their characters compliment each other.
...2020-11-0345 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 50 John Neal: Putting the Lloyd's halo back in placeWelcome to the Voice of Insurance in association with Advantage Go -
enabling Underwriters to increase the speed and accuracy of decision making.
It was great experience recording today’s episode because it was the first time since the Covid 19 crisis began that I was able to do an interview face to face instead of a video call.
And it seemed even more poignant that this first face to face interview should be at Lloyd’s – the only physical marketplace where insurance is traded by multiple counterparties all in the same room.
Tech...2020-10-2755 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 49 Tim Turner: This is not a re-run of 85-86The seeds for today’s episode were sown at a meeting in Chicago in the early Spring of 2019.
I had been chairing a conference there and was making the most of the trip by visiting as many of the insurance people with their offices in the Windy City.
So it was that I met today’s guest for the first time over breakfast in the centre of town.
It was a great meeting – my host was full of energy and incredibly excited over the prospects for the Excess and Surplus lines (E&S) mar...2020-10-2026 minThe Voice of InsuranceCommonwealth Insurance Forum Special Episode 1: Insuring high-growth emerging markets with Inga Beale and Lesley NdlovuWe all know about the protection gap and financial sustainability and resilience goals for the developing world set by global bodies such as the World Bank and the United Nations.
We also know about the massive growth potential of many emerging economies and the role the insurance industry can play in enabling and accelerating its development.
This episode goes into the detail of how to approach this major opportunity and answers some common questions and upends many common misconceptions.
How much is insurance understood in developing nations? Is it seen simply as aid...2020-10-1435 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 48 D&O: The hardest market of all time with David Ritchie of Gallagher UKMost Voice of Insurance episodes tend to be with industry CEOs.
This way you can get to know the real people behind the public persona and learn about how the industry really works by finding out what makes its leaders tick.
But of course it doesn’t give you a huge amount of class-specific detail.
Industry titans at public companies know a ton of detail about high finance and deal economics, but if I went too deep into detail on any given class of insurance or reinsurance, they would rightly refer me to an...2020-10-1325 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 47 Pat Ryan: Build a business people are proud to work forWhat is the greatest quality of the best business builders in our industry?
After putting together today’s episode, I’m now certain it must be the ability to get the best out of people.
Pat Ryan is a broking legend.
He’s the visionary who saw that globalisation was going to create the need for global brokers to serve the global companies that it would create.
But it’s one thing having a vision – it is completely another to be able to execute on it.
Today you get to find ou...2020-10-0641 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 46 The Best Market for a Decade: David Croom-Johnson MD Aegis LondonWhen I book an interview guest in for the show it is usually at least few weeks and often a few months in advance.
When I open up my diary I can see them lined up ahead.
I build up expectations in my mind about what the interview is going to be like.
It never turns out the way I think.
Today is a case in point. I have got to know David Croom-Johnson of Aegis London over many years while covering the global insurance market.
I...2020-09-2935 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 45 Selling certainty, with Stefan Golling Chief Underwriter Munich ReHere at the Voice of Insurance we look at an extremely broad cross-section of the global insurance and reinsurance markets, form fascinating niches right to the top, to the giants of the sector.
Today’s guest is right at the top.
He has the biggest underwriting job in the world, with the size and scale to be able to move global markets.
That means knowing how he is thinking is required knowledge for anyone who wants to get a feel for what is happening in the marketplace.
In this interview I en...2020-09-2224 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 44 Juan Andrade of Everest Re: An Underwriter’s marketToday’s guest is a bit of a coup for the Voice of Insurance. He is the CEO of a $13bn top 10 reinsurance and specialty insurance group that spans the full length of the insurance value chain.
Yet despite being a public company of great scale, until now it hasn’t had much of a public profile.
It’s previous CEOs were notoriously publicity-shy but that’s about to change.
Juan Andrade has been in post since January and is starting to give Everest Re a public profile that befits its size and relevanc...2020-09-1525 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 43 Swimming as the tide goes out, with Laurent Rousseau Deputy CEO of Scor Global P&CToday’s episode is a real cracker and part of a series of great episodes we’ve got lined up for you in the month of September.
Laurent Rousseau is the Deputy CEO of Scor Global P&C and is a rising star in this top-tier global reinsurer.
In this podcast we talk about the dilemma facing Lloyd’s of London, Covid effects, the Insurtech phenomenon in the era of the now publicly quoted Lemonade, the intimate details of what is driving the hardening global insurance and reinsurance markets, the class of 2020 and the boom condit...2020-09-0845 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 42 Coverholders in a box: Stephen Card of Carbon UnderwritingToday’s episode is all about another syndicate in a box.
Back in episode 16 I interviewed Stuart Newcombe, the active underwriter of the Munich Re innovation Syndicate 1840 and the discussion was all about technology and the implementation of pioneering concepts such as parametric products.
This episode is also about the application of technology but this time it is being applied to one of the most traditional elements of underwriting at Lloyd’s - delegated authority.
This route accounts for 40% of Lloyd’s premiums and so any plan to revolutionise this method of distribution will h...2020-09-0429 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 41 A Great Time to be an Underwriter. With Tim Carter CUO of Argo GroupToday’s guest is an executive with a big job to do.
The broad market turn, driving improved performance, tidying up back years and dealing Covid-19 are enough for most executives, but on top of all that this new leader’s company has had the fallout from an acrimonious public dispute with an activist investor to deal with.
As part of Argo Group’s new management team, Chief Underwriting Officer Tim Carter has a lot on his plate.
Yet he is unfazed. In this encounter I found someone really calm, easygoing, and infectiously optimi...2020-09-0124 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 40 Rule your niche with Andrew Robinson of HIIGThis episode’s guest is a journalist’s dream. He has deep, long and broad industry experience, he is very intelligent, he has very strong and clear opinions about how insurance works and why he is doing what he is doing.
More importantly he is never afraid of expressing those opinions and he does so with great enthusiasm and charisma.
Even better for us is that he has a new role heading a company that plays in one of the most interesting hard markets anywhere in the world.
He is Andrew Robinson, the comp...2020-08-2534 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 39 Slaying the myths of Legacy with Tom Booth of DaragToday’s episode is all about legacy. Legacy used to be called run-off and run-off conjured up slightly negative connotations of difficult old greyhairs in dusty out of the way offices eking out a dwindling pot of claims until retirement.
I used to think that its keenness to rename itself was a sign that it wanted to rehabilitate itself in some way and that the change was merely cosmetic or aesthetic.
But over the years it has become obvious that the words run-off had themselves to be put into run-off.
This is because le...2020-08-1832 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 38 The future of insurance is now, with Stephen Brittain of the Insurtech GatewayI always think one of the main missions of the Voice of Insurance is to give you access to industry leaders so you can find out how they think and what they think about the big issues of the day.
These are people that you’ve almost certainly heard of but not necessarily heard from.
But there is a second mission which is to introduce you to people who you almost certainly don’t know but who I think have got some very interesting things to say.
In my line of work I get...2020-08-1134 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 37 Capital Masterclass with Vicky Carter of Guy CarpenterToday’s guest is a broker right at the top of her profession.
She is someone industry leaders turn to for advice and assistance around the most fundamental commodity in our industry – capital.
Her contacts are superb and if you need support her insight and connections could be the difference between getting what you need and coming up short.
Vicky Carter is Guy Carpenter’s Chairman of Global Capital Solutions, International and is also a member of the Council of Lloyd’s.
In our discussion we examine every fa...2020-08-0440 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 36 Howden plans with José Manuel González and Barnaby Rugge-PriceI have been watching the development of the intermediary whose executives you’ll meet in this episode since before it was founded back in 1994.
Now over a quarter of a century later, a lot of organic growth and a lot of M&A, this business is many thousands of times larger than it was then.
It spans much of the globe and is one of the best poised to make the most of the opportunities thrown up by the latest round of mega-consolidation in the broking space.
It is just about to merge it...2020-07-2833 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 35 Re-shaping Aspen with Mark CloutierThe Aspen story is one that in many ways mirrors the global wholesale specialty insurance and reinsurance markets that we know and love so much.
After a few years of relative underperformance – nothing catastrophic or life-threatening but underperformance nonetheless – Aspen now finds itself in the hands of private equity in the form of serial industry investor Apollo.
Mark Cloutier is in post to turn Aspen around for its new owner just at the time that much of the market is taking similar remedial action to improve performance.
Mark...2020-07-2136 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 34 Worldwide ambition with Mike Reynolds of OneglobalIn the insurance media we talk about classes of new carriers being formed in mass flowerings of capitalism after the bursting of prolonged soft markets, but we never apply this term to the birth of intermediaries.
This is because the distribution side of our industry tends to renew itself more organically and less in dramatic waves.
Except that right now the conditions are perfect for a mass expansion in this space.
The consolidation of Marsh & McLennan and JLT and the prospect of Aon and Willis coming together are providing a once in a...2020-07-1434 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 33 Seizing a golden opportunity with Franz-Josef Hahn of Peak ReIn the wholesale specialty and reinsurance end of the global P&C market we can easily make the mistake of focusing too exclusively on the North American and European markets that make up the lion's share of worldwide premiums.
We can easily fall into the error of thinking that hard markets are universal and that whenever the US sneezes the rest of the world catches a cold.
That’s why It’s great to get a different perspective with a CEO who has been building a business in the world’s fastest growing markets in Asia f...2020-07-0727 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 32 The mid-year renewals with James Vickers, Chair of Willis Re InternationalReinsurance is in a particularly interesting state at the moment.
Industry capital has recovered as capital markets have bounced back after decisive actions from central banks around the world and incumbents and a few start-ups have raised or plan to raise new capital.
But at the same time the industry has shown stronger underwriting discipline as it seeks to correct a poor run of results and tries to get ahead of likely unsatisfactory back year development in casualty classes.
Retro is expensive as the ILS market retrenches and traditional buyers are looking to...2020-07-0325 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 31 Andrew Horton: Beazley, the hard market and the new Lloyd'sThis episode's guest is the CEO of one of Lloyd’s standout performers of the past two decades.
Beazley is a blue-chip Lloyd’s business that has consistently maintained top quartile performance while growing fast and continuing to innovate.
Because of this any time in the presence of Andrew Horton is time well spent.
In this episode we talk about the hardening market, the world that awaits the Class of 2020, Lloyd’s reforms, including syndicate in a box, lead-follow and the use of automation to remove costs from the syndicated market.
We als...2020-06-3033 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 30 Steve McGill: Rip up your original business plan...Not many people have ever been entrusted with hundreds of millions of dollars and the promise of more to come if it is needed with instructions to go an create a brand new broker from scratch.
But today’s guest has persuaded blue chip investors to do just that.
These investors have also given him the multi-year time horizon he needs to achieve his goals.
With a glittering career right at the top of global intermediaries, he could have stayed where he was and continued to do extremely well for himself. That’s what...2020-06-2342 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 29 John Ludlow of Airmic: Insurance falling short of high standards and founding principlesToday’s guest brings with him a difficult message for our industry in this Covid 19 crisis
Quite simply we’re not doing well enough.
We’re not being consistent enough, we are inflexible and some of our decisions are being driven purely by cost and profit considerations.
We are too distant from the customer, we are letting small businesses down and are restricting cover going forwards where we shouldn’t be.
Listening to me say this you would think he was a radical plaintiff lawyer looking to whip up publicity for a class...2020-06-1623 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 28 Meet the Lloyd's Gatekeeper - Julian Tighe of AstaJulian Tighe is the CEO of Asta, the Lloyd’s market’s biggest and best-known turnkey managing agency.
Turnkeys are firms that incubate fledgling Lloyd’s businesses, helping them learn the ropes before they stand in their own right
Because of that anyone looking to enter the Lloyd’s market is very likely to have met with him or people from his organisation before taking their idea any further.
That means he gets an unparalleled view of what ventures are vying to become part of lloyd’s future as well as some of the ideas...2020-06-0923 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 27 How captives insure the uninsurable, with Oliver Schofield of RISCSOne of the main aims of this podcast is to introduce you to some of the exceptional people I have been lucky enough to meet during the course of my work as an insurance journalist.
Some are not the CEOs and public-facing executives, but the strategic visionaries and innovators who work behind the scenes doing extraordinary things.
Today’s guest is just one such character. Oliver Schofield has had over 30 years in insurance working at brokers Alexander Howden and Aon and then RKH and RFIB.
He is now an independent consultant working in th...2020-06-0234 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 26 Talent and the class of 2020/21 with Dennis MahoneyDennis Mahoney is a broking industry legend.
A consummate intermediary and negotiator he rose to be a trusted councillor at the top of the global broking world and right at the peak of the Aon chain of command.
Since relocating to Bermuda he has taken on a wider range of executive and non-executive roles.
The latest of these saw him steady the ship at independent London -based wholesale and reinsurance broker RFIB ahead of its eventual sale to Integro/Tysers.
Dennis is always honest and forthright in his opinions and has...2020-05-2629 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 25 Build me a reinsurance broker: Tim Gardner of Lockton ReTim Gardner is the relatively new CEO of Lockton Re and has been tasked by the Lockton group with building up a challenger reinsurance broking operation of significant scale.
The MMC-JLT and now Aon-Willis M&A activity has given this venture a significant timing boost and there is a palpable sense of a once in a generation opportunity for independents to stake their claim on a share of this lucrative global market.
I quizzed Tim on every aspect of his strategy to make Lockton Re a credible new player in the reinsurance broking space.
2020-05-2027 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 24 Running towards risk: Stephen Postlewhite of QBE ReI spoke to Managing Director of QBE Re Stephen Postlewhite about hardening rates at the mid-year renewals, capital crunches, squeezes in ILS and retro and the long-term insurability of pandemic risk.
I also asked him about what might change at QBE Re now that the former actuary and Aspen executive has taken the reins.
I found someone freshly reloaded with capital and risk appetite and full of expansion plans.
Watch this space – QBE Re is keen to engage with this global hard market.
It was refreshing – have a listen.
2020-05-1521 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 23 Julian Enoizi of Pool Re: Time to become peril-agnostic on non-damage BI?We live in incredibly uncertain times and its at times like this that we value clarity above all else.
My interviewee in this episode makes himself crystal clear.
Julian Enoizi is the CEO of the UK’s government backed terrorism insurance mutual Pool Re.
Born hastily as a response to the successful mainland UK bombing campaign of the IRA 27 years ago, it has since evolved into a far more sophisticated entity managing a substantial surplus, opening a commercial relationship with global reinsurers and liaising with similar global terror pools and mechanisms around the wo...2020-05-1223 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 22 Casualty, Capital and Covid with Jason Howard CEO of BeachI first met this episode’s interviewee in the queue for a Latin American treaty underwriter back in 1993 and have been interviewing him as an insurance journalist since 2005.
It probably shows in this encounter. Jason Howard, CEO of Beach & Associates is a great person to talk to.
He has had a long career as a business leader and more importantly he is a big personality who always says exactly what he thinks, even if this occasionally gets him into hot water.
Here of course we talk about covid-19 and how the June renewals ar...2020-05-0534 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 21 Covid-19's reinsurance impact with Andrew Newman and Printhan Sothinathan of Willis ReIn this wide-ranging debate we cover the the economic, asset-side, risk-side, pricing dynamics and psychological effects of Covid-19 on the reinsurance market, guided by Willis Re's recent report.
Andrew Newman, President, and Printhan Sothinathan, Co-Head of Global Analytics, at
Willis Re are two very smart, very senior and very engaging figures.
The report is the most comprehensive and far-sighted produced by any market participant to date and if you like this podcast (which I think you will) I recommend you take time to read its 70 pages for a rounder experience:
https://www.w...2020-04-3045 minThe Voice of InsuranceSpecial Episode: Biba, the LMG and Liiba respond to Covid-19The second in our series of special Covid 19 episodes brings together a trio of trade body Chief Executives: Steve White of the British Insurance Brokers Association (Biba), Clare Lebecq of the London Market Group (LMG) and Christopher Croft of the London and International Insurance Brokers Association (Liiba).
These heavyweight trade body leaders debated the UK insurance industry’s Public relations performance, its relationship with regulators and the UK and international body politic, the insurability of pandemics and even Brexit, whose negotiations are approaching a crunch point behind the scenes.
It is a lively and unusually fr...2020-04-2842 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 19 Bermuda briefing with Chris Bonard and John Turner of Ed BrokingThis episode is all about the state of play in Bermuda and what is happening on the island.
Two weeks ago I had a Zoom call with Chris Bonard, CEO and John Turner, Chairman of Ed Broking Bermuda.
As independent intermediaries looking to capitalise on what the island’s insurance and reinsurance markets have to offer, their view is really interesting.
Each decade has seen a relative USP that Bermuda has been able to bring to the global insurance market.
In the seventies it was captives and in the eighties it wa...2020-04-2240 minThe Voice of InsuranceSpecial Episode: Covid-19 update with Brendan McManus, Peter Blanc and Warren Downey in association with Specialist Risk GroupHow is the UK insurance industry really responding to the Covid-19 crisis?
The Voice of Insurance teamed up with Specialist Risk Group (SRG) and brought together three hugely experienced broking CEOs to find out.
Brendan McManus of PIB, Peter Blanc of Aston Lark and Warren Downey of SRG have traded through many crises in their careers, but probably nothing quite like this.
What's working? What's not? Who's showing their true colours, good or bad?
In this essential debate, the trio rated the sector’s own operational response to the crisis and discus...2020-04-1548 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 17 P&I primer with Dorothea Ioannou of The American ClubAs a journalist one of the best things about my job is being allowed into the far flung and most fascinating corners of our industry to find out how things work.
Protection and Indemnity - P&I - is exactly one of those places.
And it would be easy to ignore were it not the source of so many of the biggest insurance stories of the past decade.
For example a mega claim like the Costa Concordia was a P&I event that captured the attention of the whole world over many months.2020-04-0950 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 16 Inside the first syndicate in a box with Stuart Newcombe, active underwriterOne of the most eye-catching parts of the Lloyd’s of London Blueprint reforms has been the Syndicate in a box initiative.
The idea of a fast-track, light-touch, low-cost, fast-fail Syndicate has gone down very well with the market.
This is because over the past two decades many players have bemoaned the steadily increasing cost of starting a new Lloyd’s business and have wondered where the next generation of new Hiscoxes, Kilns, Catlins and Beazleys might come from given that barriers to entry are now prohibitively high.
The received wisdom over that time...2020-03-3134 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 15, Solo 1: Unfair Punishment and Pandemic ReThis podcast is a new feature - I’m calling it Voice of Insurance Solo.
It is really an editorial in podcast form – let me know what you think.
Is insurance going to get unfairly punished by governments and judiciaries for the systemic global failures exposed by the Covid 19 pandemic?
And if so might state-backed Pandemic Reinsurance vehicles be the logical result of the new deal that will follow any government raids on our coffers?
Listen on for thoughts and opinion...
2020-03-2416 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 14 Early coronavirus thoughts from David Flandro of Hyperion XHow well prepared is the 2020 global insurance industry for the challenge of the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic?
The best thing about being a journalist is about being able to access the top minds and experts to make sense of the world.
So today with economies and our clients being forcibly shut down, events cancelled, sovereign and corporate bonds undergoing spectacular gyrations and share prices tumbling globally, (with insurers stock falling more than the market average), I wanted to talk to someone smart to help ordinary people like me and you to understand a little bit of...2020-03-2337 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp 13 The secrets of Jonathan Parry of QBE Re’s successThe hardening market and the upcoming renewals, ILS, the vexing casualty question and of course the mega-brokers getting bigger - this interview doesn't miss anything out.
Jonathan Parry is a highly experienced and well-regarded underwriter with many decades of experience. He knows the insurance and reinsurance markets inside and out. If you don’t know him already I think you’ll like him – and you will learn a lot from him
He’s also quite a rare character in that he spent the first half of his career as a broker.
This gives him a re...2020-03-1753 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp.12 Navigating the post Aon-Willis, MMC-JLT world with Toby Esser of AFLThis episode’s guest is Toby Esser, chairman of independent London wholesale broker AFL.
Toby is a veteran of the London market broking scene and is the former CEO of Cooper Gay which grew manyfold under his ambitious and energetic leadership both organically and by high-profile M&A.
I have interviewed Toby many times over the years and it shows in this interview.
Toby is not shy and his personality shines through.
We have a really wide ranging discussion from growing an independent business and handling the precocious prima-donna-like talent without wh...2020-03-101h 00The Voice of InsuranceEp.11 How to fix the insurance culture problem, with Nicolas AubertIn this episode I’m talking to Nicolas Aubert, Head of Great Britain at Willis Towers Watson and CEO of Willis Limited.
As a Frenchman who has forged a successful career in London, in many ways he is a personal embodiment of the kind of global, multi-faceted and diverse marketplace that London would like to present to the world.
The insurance market has been through a lot of soul searching in the past 12 months as every aspect of its culture has been examined in minute detail .
Stories of bad behaviour and discrimination have fi...2020-02-2842 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp.10 Cyber masterclass with Dan Trueman of AxisDan Trueman is global Head of Cyber at Axis Insurance and is one of the true cyber market pioneers with a 20 year career centred on insuring unconventional enterprise risks.
He has developed into an industry spokeperson and an ambassador for the cyber class globally.
In our wide-ranging discussion we got to the heart of what has triggered the explosion in cyber growth and the latest in price, demand and loss trends.
Listen and discover why Dan thinks that cyber cover will never again be as cheap as it is today.
We...2020-02-1852 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp.9 Insurtech: Everything you need to know. With Instech LondonIf you are not a techie but want to be properly informed about what is coming down the Insurtech track and want to know how analogue insurance folk should be reacting, this podcast is 100% designed for you.
I caught up with Matthew Grant and fellow Instech London founder Robin Merttens earlier in the month.
Matthew and Robin are decades-long veterans of what we now call Insurtech and have spent careers bridging the often sizeable gap between insurance and technology.
They do it so we don't have to.
Back in 2015 they founded...2020-02-1255 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp.8 Japan, Florida and Casualty renewals preview - Steve Arora, Axis ReThere is a lot to play for in 2020
The reinsurance market has a lot invested in the major 2020 renewals and has high expectations of re-pricing in April, June and mid-year.
Japanese Typhoon has been active in the last couple of seasons and loss development has re-written the models and taken everybody by surprise.
Florida has been busy developing its losses of 2017 and 2018 in new and surprising ways.
And of course tension has been building in the US casualty world which renews in mid-year. Original rates have moved sharply upwards and loss...2020-02-0748 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp.7 Disrupting Aviation with Phil Smaje and Marcel Chad of Piiq Risk PartnersThe Voice of Insurance was lucky enough to catch up with Phil Smaje the CEO and Marcel Chad the President of newly-launched London-based aviation challenger broker Piiq Risk Partners.
Piiq is part of BGC Partners, which is also the owner of wholesale brokers Ed Broking and Besso.
It is an interesting new addition to the line-up of London specialty intermediaries because Phil and Marcel are both aviation veterans with long careers at the major brokers.
The timing is also fascinating because whilst other segments of the global market are merely hardening, there is...2020-02-0348 minThe Voice of InsuranceEp.6 The Capsicum-Gallagher deal with Rupert Swallow and Simon MatsonFollowing Gallagher's deal to buy out 100% ownership of Capsicum Re - the reinsurance broker it founded as a joint venture with former Benfield boss Graeme Chilton and colleagues back in 2013 - The Voice of Insurance caught up with Capsicum Re CEO Rupert Swallow and Simon Matson, the CEO of Gallagher’s UK Broking & Underwriting division.
What were Gallagher's plans now that it had finally broken successfully into reinsurance after decades of trying?
What would Capsicum do with major human and financial resources at its disposal?
Would it stay specialist or have a go at...2020-01-2243 min
Sweathead, A Strategy PodcastWhere Are My People? - Rachel O'Donovan, Thomas Geoghegan, StrategistsDublin's Rachel O'Donovan and Thomas Geoghegan are strategists who want other strategists to talk about strategy. They recently set up a Dublin branch of London's Group Think, a community of hundreds of strategists that is trying to provide emotional and intellectual support that doesn't seem to be something agencies or industry organizations are interested in, capable at, or resourced to do.
We discuss:
- Dublin's pub philosophers and writers. And are planners this?
- The frustration, loneliness, and self-doubt of the planning life
- What midweight planners need
- What is a midweight planner? A senior planner?
- What happens...2018-11-1051 min
Mark and Me PodcastTed GeogheganWe Are Still Here.On this episode we speak to Filmmaker and publicist Ted Geoghegan, Ted has been involved in the horror film genre for the past decade as a writer and producer. We discuss his debut feature We Are Still Here and recent movie Mohawk. Please support the Mark and Me Podcast here https://www.patreon.com/Markandme2018-11-0936 min
Cultural TechnologiesBernard Stiegler, Mark Hansen, and WJT Mitchell on Friedrich Kittler (Episode 7)Download: Cult_Tech_Ep007_Stiegler_Hansen_Mitchell_on_Kittler.mp3Another Cultural Technologies Bootleg: This episode features a chat among French philosopher Bernard Stiegler, media theorist Mark B. N. Hansen, and literary critic W. J. T. Mitchell on the work of German media theorist Friedrich Kittler, following which Stiegler muses about time, technology, love, and death in the age of electronic media. And Hansen chimes in about Amazon algorithms stalking his desires. (Original recording took place in Mark Hansen's and W. J. T. Mitchell's 2004 media theory course at the University of Chicago.)
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