The Voice of Insurance

The Voice of Insurance Mark Geoghegan

Insurance is a maze. Don’t get lost.
Mark Geoghegan asks directions from all the top people in the Global Insurance and Reinsurance Industry

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20 episodes
Updated Tuesday

Episodes20

Newest first

Tuesday · 51 min
Ep312 Clyde Bernstein, Placement Tech Leader Aon: Get the plumbing right
Most episodes of this podcast deal with the here and now, the day-to-day cut and thrust of what is going on in the market. This podcast is completely different because it gives us a view into the future of broking. Clyde Bernstein is the Placement Technology & Trading Analytics Leader at Aon and in the first half of this podcast we examine the global broker’s new Digital Placement Exchange (DPX) placing system, designed to automate the placing of following lines. Once that essential building block of the conversation is out of the way, the interview really begins to take off. What Aon is in the middle of doing is removing friction and cost from the placing process, while fully connecting all its brokers with the whole global market and all the insights the vast amount of risk and market data it has at its disposal can afford. Exploring the logical medium- and long-term consequences for the market is the really interesting part of our discussion. The transformation is profound. A market with far greater liquidity, access to deeper pools of capital and an ability to trade risk much faster and more efficiently is what emerges. Productivity, customer service and product innovation should also surge. The role of the broker could also change fundamentally. But the best thing about this conversation is not the clarity of the blue-sky thinking on display, but rather the fact that the person shaping the vision is resolutely a broker and not a technologist. In his long career Clyde has brokered claims, reinsurance and specialty risks. He is one of us – a lifelong broker who has learnt to engage with cutting edge technology and not the other way around. This means that our discussion is always grounded from the perspective of the real life of a broker solving client problems and not the utopian vision of a technologist who has never placed a risk or paid a claim. It’s mind-expanding stuff and one of the best discussions on the future of broking I have ever recorded. I highly recommend a listen. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo, now part of Sapiens: https://www.advantagego.com
July 21 · 37 min
Ep311 Richard Brindle Group CEO TFP & Clive Washbourn CEO Navium: Being Brave
Today’s Episode is one of those interviews that give you a warm feeling of anticipation when you get it in the diary, then when you’re researching and preparing the questions, you’re really looking forward to it, and finally the recording itself session happens and it goes even better than you hoped. Now a couple of weeks later I have just listened back and I’m still smiling because this is something quite special and very different from the everyday. Richard Brindle and Clive Washbourn are two of the most celebrated underwriters of their generation and have each been on the podcast more than once in their own right. For the last five years Richard and Clive have been underwriting under the same group organisational roof in The Fidelis Partnership and Navium respectively. Richard even cited Clive’s new-found joie de vivre at Navium as the inspiration for the bifurcation of Fidelis into the Fidelis Partnership and Pelagos. This podcast is only briefly about the grand issues of the day. My interviewees very quickly deal with these and then we start examining much more timeless and valuable questions. The core of this meeting is really a long discussion about what makes a good underwriter and then what makes a good underwriter a great one. We examine all of this in the context of the AI revolution and how to apply it to the business of outperforming in insurance underwriting. This is a masterclass that will teach you an awful lot. Along the way you’ll also spend quality time with two of the market’s strongest and most charismatic personalities. The result is an instant classic that provides a valuable listen for any insurance professional at any stage in their career. NOTES: At time of recording Fidelis Insurance Group had only just rebranded to Pelagos Insurance Capital, so if there is the odd slip of the tongue, be clear that we should have referred to Pelagos, and will definitely be doing so from now onwards. Richard mentions the Sharpe Ratio, which is an investment metric used to measure the relative volatility of the returns of a company. Events in Iran, the Gulf States and the Straits of Hormuz are incredibly volatile and have already changed fundamentally, even in the short time between recording this interview and its release date. Please keep yourself best informed by using up-to-the-minute news and intelligence sources. Finally Richard mentions that there are two charities. The Fidelis Foundation is The Fidelis Partnership’s charity, and Richard’s personal charity is called The Muriel Jones Foundation. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo, now part of Sapiens: https://www.advantagego.com
July 17 · 50 min
SpEp Will Ross, CEO Federato: Respecting the Problem of Insurance
Today’s podcast is a rare encounter with someone looking to revolutionise the insurance industry from its core. We are at one of those generational moments when a big tech question is right at the top of the board agenda in almost every industry sector in the world. That question is AI. Insurance is no different. As AI moves from the experimentation phase to the delivery phase, insurance businesses are going to be faced with a key dilemma – should they try to run AI as a new tech layer on top of their current core IT systems or should they take the plunge and use the opportunity to install a whole new system that has been designed and built with AI at its heart? Will Ross is the co-Founder and CEO of Federato and he is betting that enough companies will choose the latter path. Will is an AI native with post-graduate degrees from Stanford University and has been building Federato over the past six years. He is also a very special type of entrepreneur. He discovered insurance when working on wildfire models, but he saw an even bigger business opportunity across the core of insurance and co-founded Federato while still working on his Stanford studies. Federato has built substantial scale and has raised $180mn to date, with the latest round of $100mn lead by Goldman Sachs. This is clearly a firm that means business and is intent on taking a permanent seat at the Insurance IT table. Will is charismatic and fun to talk to and is probably the best-placed guest I have had on the show to date to really examine what the successful embedding of AI into insurance underwriting will mean for the sector as a whole. Some of what we discussed was highly reassuring, but some of his insights were surprising and challenging to conventional wisdom. Much of the industry is at a crossroads over the AI revolution and the next steps are going to be key. Senior decision-makers looking for guidance on their next move would be well advised to listen to Will set out his clear vision in this enlightening interview. LINKS: For more information visit www.federato.ai
July 14 · 31 min
Ep310 Dan Burrows Group CEO Pelagos: Very few people get to see the whole market
Today’s guest has a job that is almost unique in the global insurance industry. That’s because his organisation has been formed through a unique exercise that split a standard insurance company into an MGA in charge of underwriting and a balance sheet in charge of allocating capital to risk. All this means that Dan Burrows, Group CEO Pelagos Insurance Capital, is probably the only pure capital allocator in existence. There are lots of investors in the global insurance market, allocating capital to insurance companies, but they are many steps removed from the risk and are only likely to review their allocations annually. What’s unique about Pelagos is that it is much closer to the underwriting process, reviewing risk and capital decisions in almost real time. To paraphrase economic terms, whereas most investors in insurance are macro, Pelagos is very much micro. It takes some unique qualities to pull this kind of thing off and that’s what makes this podcast so fascinating. Dan is a unique character in a unique job with a unique perspective on the market and I’m sure that some of what you’re about to hear will surprise you. In this podcast we examine the re-brand to Pelagos, the maturing of the long-term relationship with the Fidelis Partnership and diversification into other underwriting channels, the prospects for profitable trading as the market becomes more competitive, thoughts around carrier M&A, as well as the big questions such as the best applications of AI in insurance and the seemingly relentless advance of portfolio solutions underwriting. Dan is calm, softly-spoken and thoughtful, but is also razor-sharp and able to provide instant feedback or pushback. In short he strikes me as the ideal foil for smart, entrepreneurial underwriting teams. This is an engrossing and revealing encounter which I can I highly recommend to anyone. NOTES: Dan was too polite to correct my initial mispronunciation of Pelagos. The stress is on the first syllable, not the second. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo, now part of Sapiens: https://www.advantagego.com
July 7 · 35 min
Ep309 Tim Gardner CEO & Bob Bisset CEO NA, Lockton Re: Feeding the Furnace for Growth
Today’s Episode is a catch-up with two reinsurance brokers back on the podcast after an absence of over two-and-a-half years. That’s long enough for most guests, but for an executive team that has been building out a Reinsurance broking operation in earnest for only a little longer than this podcast has been in existence, it’s an age. Since we last spoke Tim Gardner Global CEO, and Bob Bisset, CEO North America at Lockton Re have seen the business hit profitability, witnessed revenue push through $300mn and headcount exceed 600. What’s more, in that time reinsurance market dynamics have been transformed and emerging technologies like AI and market phenomena such as facilitisation and portfolio solutions have broken through and re-written business growth strategies. So we clearly had a lot to catch up about. Tim and Bob are brokers’ brokers and that makes conversations exceeding easy to start and even easier to maintain and develop. With these two you always end up with a little more than what you thought you were going to get when you started out. This is a high-energy and fun conversation. So if you want to understand in depth the state of and prospects for global insurance and reinsurance markets and where Lockton Re is positioning itself to serve them, listen on. I had a blast and I know you will too. NOTES: Bob mentions a Keith. He is referring to Keith Harrison, CEO of Lockton Re International LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo, now part of Sapiens: https://www.advantagego.com
June 30 · 49 min
Ep308 Stephanie Ogden, Munich Re Syndicate: Balancing Realism and Ambition
I’m really happy about today’s podcast and that’s because today’s guest is a shining example of a new, very well-prepared generation of leaders that is coming through the ranks in the international insurance sector. With senior roles in the company market and inside Lloyd’s itself Stephanie Ogden was already well-rounded before she took on her current role as the CEO of the Munich Re Syndicate at Lloyd’s. Steph is a breath of fresh air – actually I’d say more like a blast. Listening back to this conversation, I have rarely spoken to someone who carries themselves as naturally as she does. I spoke to the same person before, during and after our recording. What you hear is what you get and what you get is a very clear sense of how one of the Lloyd’s market’s most consistently successful businesses sees the market today, where it sees it heading and how it intends to engage. This is a very well-rounded conversation. As one might expect, it’s technical and financial but it’s also technological, commercial, professional, passionate, personal and laced with humour. Steph is highly engaging and is well across the core challenges facing the London and global specialty markets, from the opportunities arising from the internationalisation of the market to the impact of technological transformation and AI. Talking to Steph made me feel a little old – but in a good way. Growing old isn’t easy, but when people really don’t enjoy getting old it’s because they think that things are getting worse than they used to be, not better. Forty-five minutes with Steph and the only conclusion is that many things are definitely getting better and the market’s best days are ahead of, and not behind it. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo, now part of Sapiens: https://www.advantagego.com
June 26 · 22 min
SpEp Helen Sanson CEO The Insurance Charity: Insurance for Insurance people
Everyone who works in the Insurance Industry knows it is a great business. The great cliché is that people fall into the sector via all sorts of roundabout routes and then they stay. They rarely pick the industry as a first choice. But once in there are many amazing benefits that take new entrants by surprise. In the UK the vibrant national and regional professional communities facilitated by a great institutions such as the CII, BIBA, Airmic and other bodies are obvious examples. But the connectivity goes way beyond our trade bodies. In places like the London Market there is an incredibly diverse and vibrant array of sporting and cultural activities available to all. From Sailing to Bridge to Art, if you can imagine it, there is probably an Insurance-related Club or Society devoted to it. There is even a London Orchestra with a direct connection to the sector that I only discovered by relative chance after at least 15 years of complete ignorance. But did you know there is another group that all insurance practitioners in the UK and Ireland also belong to? We are all potential beneficiaries of the Insurance Charity. This is a Charity that is 124 years old and was set up to look after any current or former insurance practitioners, and their families, in their hour of need. This week is the Annual Awareness week for the charity and so today’s guest is its CEO Helen Sanson. In this short discussion Helen guides me around the Insurance Charity, everything it does currently and everything she plans to do with it in the future. It’s a fascinating chat. You may also be relieved to hear that although donations are welcome, the charity is actually well funded. What it really needs from you is your attention, awareness and advocacy. Helen is a charming, warm and passionate guest. Who knew? Another benefit of working in insurance – we have our own charity and we have exceptional people like Helen and her team to administer it for us. NOTES: PIP is an acronym for Personal Independence Payment, a UK State benefit LINKS: https://theinsurancecharity.org.uk/
June 23 · 52 min
Ep307 Alistair Lester, CEO Private Equity & M&A EMEA, Gallagher: Industrialising M&A Insurance
Today’s podcast is a masterclass with an expert in a class of business that has exploded with growth over the past decade. M&A insurance is a broad church that holds a large number of products that are all related to inter-company transactions. Representations and Warranties, potential tax liabilities, litigation risk and other contingencies related to M&A are the subject of this incredibly innovative segment of insurance. Three decades ago Alistair Lester was in on the ground floor as the class of business developed out of the D&O market. Today this is a class that is producing $10-12bn in annual revenue and can put out very meaningful maximum limits of around $1.5bn dollars for any one deal. But it’s a class that most of us won’t be familiar with, or perhaps one that some of us might think we won’t be suited to because we imagine it’s full of people who first trained as lawyers and then got into insurance. Now Gallagher’s CEO of Private Equity and M&A for Europe the Middle East and Africa, Alistair is proof that this is a class where traditional insurance brokers can thrive. This is one of the most energetic and fun conversations I have had on the show for some time. Alistair’s passion and enthusiasm are contagious and through the course of this interview I learned an awful lot about this exciting class and its enormous commercial potential. We all know insurance is often a grudge purchase and always marked down as a cost, but here it can be an investment that immediately pays for itself many times over. That’s incredibly rare and perhaps explains why this class has so much opportunity and is giving Cyber and renewables a run for their money for the title of highest-growth segment of the global insurance market. Time with Alistair makes it clear that despite growing tenfold over the past decade, this maturing class has a huge amount of growth left in it. So listen on. If after 45 minutes you’re not as enthusiastic as Alistair or I, I’d be enormously surprised. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo, now part of Sapiens: https://www.advantagego.com
June 16 · 31 min
Ep306 James Hands Group CEO Miller: Specialty with Scale
It’s been three years since today’s guest has been on the show. In that time the business he runs has doubled in size through a combination of organic growth and targeted acquisitions. Group CEO of Miller Insurance Services, James Hands, is looking for growth at a similar pace for the next three years and this interview is an excellent 360-degree guide to how he plans to achieve his goals. A focus on specialty insurance and reinsurance, investment in people and expertise and making the most of growth synergies from the firm’s acquisitions are very much the order of the day. Expansion into MGAs, and investments in technology and facilitisation are also going to be part of the mix. This is an exceptionally well-rounded interview with the leader of a business making the most of its best-of-both-worlds position as an independent with the scale and resources to be able to keep up with larger global broking groups, whilst retaining the speed and agility of a smaller business. James is relaxed and is brimming with confidence in the prospects for Miller and the global specialty broking market. A quick listen and a clear picture, as well as lots of market tips and insights, will come into view. NOTES: James refers to David Robinson. David is Miller’s MGA CEO LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo, now part of Sapiens: https://www.advantagego.com
June 9 · 41 min
Ep305 James Brady & Tom King of Hiscox: FloodPlus ten years on
In insurance we usually spend a lot more time talking about innovation than we end up doing it. So this podcast focuses on two of the do-ers putting innovation into practice. It’s now ten years since Hiscox launched its market-first, tech-enabled, live quote and bind FloodPlus product and this Episode examines the story of that product’s development and its growth into a market opportunity that was primed for expansion. To guide me through the story I am joined by James Brady, Property Divisional Director at Hiscox London Market & Tom King, the firm’s Flood Line Underwriter. This is a story about overcoming obstacles, recovering from setbacks and constant iteration. Ten years on and Hiscox is the biggest flood market in Lloyd’s and the opportunity to write flood from the private market is only growing. Indeed since we completed this recording the Trump Administration’s Council to Assess the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which runs the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) has just issued its final report, recommending the implementation of risk-based pricing and a take-out program to incentivise the transfer of policies to the private market. With US market penetration still at only 4% the prize for the private market is as big as any other underwriting opportunity out there today. Tom and James are sparkling guests and this podcast is an inspiring celebration of innovation in action that has applications way beyond the highly specific field of US flood. NOTES: The President’s Council to Assess the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) report can be found here. The part relating to Flood is on Page 11. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo, now part of Sapiens: https://www.advantagego.com
June 2 · 35 min
Ep304 Andrew Johnston Gallagher Re: AI will come to its own rescue
Today’s podcast is one of those conversations that stretched my ability to keep up with my interviewee to the limit. Andrew Johnston is the Global Head of Insurtech at Gallagher Re and has been at the forefront of understanding and chronicling the Insurtech phenomenon since it emerged over ten years ago. Gallagher Re’s quarterly reports on the topic have been required reading over the past decade for anyone wanting to understand the intersection between insurance and technology. In that period Digital disruption, Blockchain, Parametric and Embedded insurance are themes that have come to the fore. Now AI is the dominant force, so much so that Insurtech and AI are now effectively synonymous. Gallagher Re’s latest quarterly Insurtech report is one of the best pieces of research into AI and insurance that I have read. It goes way beyond AI-related Insurtech investment opportunities and digs right into the profound risk implications of AI as an emerging casualty peril in its own right. Andrew is a dream guest, incredibly sharp, bright and fun to spend time with. He’s that rare kind of person who makes you feel more intelligent for having spent time chatting to them. Listening back there are points in the conversation where whole new avenues of questioning were opening up that I failed to explore. But that’s the mark of a strong interview. It always leaves you wanting more. It’s a bit like when you wake up the morning after a big debate or argument with terrible pangs of regret that you failed to ask the killer question in the heat of the moment. The developments in AI are moving so fast that I feel certain it won’t be long before I have Andrew back on the show to help put everything into context for us. But until then this is the next best thing. NOTES: I highly recommend you download the latest Gallagher Re Insurtech report here: https://www.ajg.com/gallagherre/news-and-insights/global-insurtech-report-for-q1-2026/ LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo, now part of Sapiens: https://www.advantagego.com
May 26 · 47 min
Ep303 Will Bridger Compre: Beyond traditional Legacy
In insurance we love to divide ourselves into different mutually-exclusive tribes. Life and non-life, property and casualty, marine and non-marine. Long and short tail Traditional balance sheet reinsurance and Insurance-Linked Securities. And not forgetting - live and legacy. But the fact is that as the global insurance ecosystem becomes more sophisticated there are really only two major differences. Different types of insurance skills and different types of insurance capital. Legacy is a case in point. It has long since outgrown its claims administration roots and developed into the provision of increasingly complex forms of capital relief for the live market that are bringing it closer and closer to live risk. Today’s guest is the embodiment of that change. Will Bridger came into the legacy insurance world through investment banking, not claims handling. As Group CEO of Compre he has overseen extraordinary growth with a balance sheet that has moved from the tens of millions to the low-single-digit billions. If you think you already know legacy, you need to listen to Will. For example, Compre’s current plans envisage only one third of group activity coming from what we would think of as traditional run-off. So where are the other two thirds going to come from? Ever closer relationships with live carriers that bring more predictable renewal-style income streams, underwriting sidecars and pre-packaged legacy arrangements with alternative capital providers are all part of the mix. This is a fascinating conversation with someone who has developed into an insurance person as dyed-in-the-wool and baked into the insurance ecosystem as the best of us. Will is fun to spend time with and a great communicator. Forty minutes with him and your whole perspective about the legacy market, where it is heading and the value it might be adding to the global insurance whole will change completely. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo, now part of Sapiens: https://www.advantagego.com
May 19 · 34 min
Ep302 Nick Hankin QBE Re: Avoiding surprises
Today’s guest is running a global reinsurer with bold ambitions to double in size over the next five years. Nick Hankin is Managing Director of QBE Re. Now into his fourth decade in insurance and reinsurance, Nick has market experience in abundance, so when, despite the recent relatively rapid softening in the reinsurance market at the most recent renewals, he says he still sees plenty of opportunity for profitable growth, we should sit up and take notice. This is a podcast full of purpose and positivity. Nick has a clear plan that he wants to execute and makes a convincing case that his ambitions are eminently achievable. On the way we cover all the major issues of the day including the insurance and reinsurance opportunities arising from the data centre boom, the best use-cases for AI as well as the emergence of AI as a new casualty peril in its own right. Nick is good company and a great communicator with a clear vision. The next half an hour will fly by. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo, now part of Sapiens: https://www.advantagego.com
May 12 · 40 min
Ep301 Alfonso Valera CEO International Aon Re: Everyone is chasing growth
I first met today’s guest just under 34 years ago on my first day at work in the London Market. Back then Alfonso Valera and I worked in the London-based Lloyd’s subsidiary of the biggest broker in Spain. Alfonso was my senior and had already been in post for a year and patiently helped show me the ropes. He spoke perfect English, was a confident, skilful and forceful negotiator who was incredibly passionate about the insurance business and was always fun, direct and easy to deal with. He was mature beyond his years and was a natural leader. It seemed obvious to anyone who knew him back then that he was destined for great things. That broking business was taken over by Aon in the late nineties. Alfonso stayed on and over 25 years later he is now CEO of International at Aon Reinsurance Solutions. International covers the whole of the Rest of the World other than the Americas, and Aon is the largest reinsurance broker by revenues, so however you measure it Alfonso has one of the biggest jobs in global reinsurance. His job titles and seniority might have changed since we first met, but I can guarantee that he is exactly the same person I knew when I was fresh out of University. He is still disarmingly direct and straightforward and he is still passionate about the business, but now he is speaking from a vantage point that few in the global insurance market can reach. Alfonso is still great fun to talk to and this conversation took on a life of its own. Whether it’s the state of the market and changes in buyer and seller appetites, facilitisation in reinsurance, the prospects for M&A, the MGA phenomenon, enhanced competition between reinsurance intermediaries or the changes that AI is likely to bring, Alfonso gives me a straight answer every time and we barely pause for breath. Catching up with Alfonso was a joy from start to finish. Listen on and you’ll be bound to agree. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo, now part of Sapiens: https://www.advantagego.com
May 5 · 56 min
Ep300 Patrick Tiernan CEO Lloyd's: "Why Not Lloyd's?"
Patrick Tiernan has come into the CEO role at Lloyd’s with the market brimming with confidence after a third successive year of strong profitability. Now that competitive forces are reasserting themselves with renewed vigour, the question is what next? From this meeting the future at Lloyd’s is one full of increased velocity and innovation in all things. New leadership, new forms of underwriting, new targets and ambition, new risks, new ways to transact business, new skills and attitudes from the people who work in the market and new capital structures to bear the financial load. Recorded live in the centre of the Underwriting room by the Rostrum on a busy working day this is an energetic encounter from start to finish. If you want to get a clear feel for the charismatic new Lloyd’s CEO’s strategy and modus operandi, this will get you up to speed in no time. Patrick is easy to talk to and is disarmingly frank. From my experiences of doorstepping him whenever I have had the chance over the past five years, I can promise you that we would have had the same conversation whether or not the microphones had been turned on. What you see is what you get. So listen on for an audio roadmap for the market of the next five years and beyond. NOTES: The Sean Patrick Refers to is of course Sean McGovern, Lloyds Council member, CEO of UK and Lloyd’s at AXA XL and current Chair of the LMA. ICX and TCX are respectively the special Innovation and Energy Transition risk codes used to account for novel premium transacted in the Lloyd’s market. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo, now part of Sapiens: https://www.advantagego.com
April 28 · 38 min
Ep299 Dan Topping CEO B.P. Marsh: Small begets Big, Big begets Small
The great cliché about our sector is that while business trends come and go – it’s the people who remain the constant. Today’s guest is someone whose business follows this philosophy to the letter. Dan Topping is the CEO of London-focused, publicly-listed private equity firm B.P. Marsh with just under 20 years in the business. The firm he leads is a household name in the London Market with a 30-year often idiosyncratic pedigree backing entrepreneurs in the intermediary segment. Countless brokers and MGAs, including Howden and Nexus have benefitted from the investment and counsel from this singular institution. Given the highly-focused nature of what B.P. Marsh does, Dan and his colleagues will have seen almost every early-stage investment opportunity in the London market of the last 20 years. That gives a kaleidoscopic perspective and that knowledge and understanding seeps through every pore of Dan’s being. The prime job of a podcast like this is to help tease out specialist knowledge accumulated in the market and share it with you the listener. I have known Dan for almost all of his time at the firm and that made this interview really relaxed and much more revealing than most. If there ever were any trade secrets about what has driven the compound growth of this impressive highly-focused business, they won’t be secrets after this podcast. If you want to know what makes entrepreneurialism in the specialty insurance sector tick, this is the place to come. Together we’ll examine some of the surprising trends Dan is seeing in what many would view as an ultra-consolidated intermediary segment. Dan is as eloquent and relaxed as he is knowledgeable and the time will fly by. And perhaps you too will be inspired and emboldened to dare strike out on your own entrepreneurial journey. Clichés come about because by and large they are expressing an underlying universal truth. A quick listen and I think you’ll agree that Dan is living proof that it really is the people that make the market what it is. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo, now part of Sapiens: https://www.advantagego.com
April 21 · 32 min
Ep298 Tessa Wardle QBE Portfolio Solutions: Indexing the Market
The growth of the portfolio solutions segment of the market has been one of the most exciting and interesting developments in global insurance in the past five years. The streamlining of placements in syndicated insurance markets is producing scale, speed efficiency and cost benefits for underwriters, brokers and their clients alike. And this is a phenomenon that is really only just getting into its stride. Billions of dollars of premium are now being transacted this way as brokers look to facilitise significant percentages of their placements while consortia and other underwriting pooling arrangements proliferate. As Director of QBE Portfolio Solutions, Tessa Wardle runs one of the lead markets for this pioneering form of delegated authority underwriting and collectively her small team underwrite on a scale that in premium terms is many multiples of that achieved by conventional market underwriters. In this podcast we look at where this phenomenon is likely to be heading, as well as delving into the core mechanics of just how business of such a high volume is transacted in practice. What are the core skills of a portfolio solutions underwriter and how do they differ from conventional underwriting practice? And what are the principle levers and controls that senior executives like Tessa have at their disposal to keep these huge contracts on track? It’s a fascinating world that is in many ways revolutionary, but in many others reassuringly familiar. Tessa is an excellent guest and one of the best qualified people to guide us through this huge change in global insurance business flows and give us an idea of where the trend will be heading as it matures. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo, now part of Sapiens: https://www.advantagego.com
April 14 · 45 min
Ep297 Scott Egan CEO SiriusPoint: If you fall asleep, you go backwards
Todays’ podcast with Scott Egan is a tour de force. I think there are various reasons for that. The first is that whereas when we first spoke in 2023, Scott was relatively new in the CEO role at SiriusPoint and his strategy hadn’t had time to bed in and take full effect, now we were speaking after a year when the business had posted another set of consistently strong results and any talk of a turnaround was clearly a question belonging to the past. Secondly this was now the third time that Scott has been on the podcast and his confidence and comfort in doing this kind of thing has grown, but third and most importantly - this is a podcast that is completely forward-looking and optimistic in tone. Because SiriusPoint has rebuilt credibility and has demonstrated an ability to grow profitably it now has more strategic options at its disposal than it did three years ago. What makes this such an engaging interview is the chance it provides to examine those strategic choices, particularly now that the market environment is becoming more challenging and competitive. Listening back it is Scott’s confidence and clarity of purpose that shine through in this encounter and that’s why I can highly recommend a listen for anyone looking for a route map though this transitioning market. NOTES: I let one acronym through. PYD is Prior-Year Development. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo, now part of Sapiens: https://www.advantagego.com
April 7 · 45 min
Ep296 Ivan Gonzalez CEO Swiss Re Corporate Solutions: Our strategic priority is to lead
Today’s guest is the CEO of an $8bn GWP global insurance business. Ivan Gonzalez has spent 25 years travelling the world within the Swiss Re organisation, from his native Colombia to New York and China. He now runs Swiss Re Corporate Solutions. After undergoing a turnaround process a few years ago this is an organisation that has regained its strategic direction and confidence and is now posting combined ratios in the 80s. So it is from a position of strategic strength that this conversation developed. Ivan is an excellent guest because his passion for the role shines through and won’t allow him to mince his words. He is demonstrative and you quickly understand where he stands on any given issue. Given Swiss Re Corporate Solutions’ global capabilities and market relevance, that means we could have long and very detailed discussions on all the key market issues of the day. As such, the Corporate Solutions strategy, the opportunities arising from the global data centre boom, the application of AI in insurance and AI as a newly emerging peril, as well as the growth in MGAs all get the same unambiguous treatment. Ivan is a strong and charismatic leader who is fun to talk to. He is a dream guest and this makes for a highly recommended listen for anyone looking for clues on how to navigate a global market now clearly entering a softening phase. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo, now part of Sapiens: https://www.advantagego.com
March 31 · 31 min
Ep295 Richard Milner CEO Chaucer Group: Let's do what we're good at
Today’s guest is Richard Milner, CEO of Chaucer Group. Chaucer is a global specialty insurance and reinsurance institution with a great pedigree and significant scale, both inside and outside the Lloyd’s market. Richard is coming up for two years in post as CEO and is beginning to make his mark on the business’s long-term strategy. Richard has had the sort of underwriting career that makes him a very relatable guest. He worked his way up from photocopying slips at a Lloyd’s box to travelling the insurance world. Now he’s in senior management he’s easy to talk to because he’s still unambiguously an underwriter to his core. As a result this interview is really down-to-earth and practical in focus. In it Richard lays out his five-year plan for Chaucer and we dissect the issues of the day in great detail and variety, ranging from how rates and business flows are holding up in a more competitive market, to an assessment of AI as a new emerging peril and potential new line of business. Richard is great company and I can highly recommend a listen. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com

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