The Voice of Insurance

Today's Episode is special and completely out of the ordinary. Regular listeners will know that in most episodes I will talk to senior insurance and reinsurance executives and focus on what they have just done and what are about to do. Today's no different in that respect, but it's a far richer encounter because of who my guest is and what he has been doing since the summer of 2023. Until very recently Steve Arora was the co-founder of Alpine Re, a new balance sheet reinsurer looking to tap into a disrupted reinsurance market. Alpine Re didn't end up materialising, but only after an intense 20-month period of activity in which investors of all shapes and sizes were contacted and canvassed. All this means that Steve is currently better qualified than even the best investment banker to talk about what investors want from the reinsurance industry. Once you have left no stone unturned you get to see the real layout of the bedrock below and in our interview Steve goes really deeply into the appetites, hopes and fears of each investor type. We also examine in great detail the optimal design of the model reinsurer of today. If you had a blank piece of paper and could start a new reinsurer from scratch, where would you be domiciled and how many underwriting locations would you have? And what would you be looking to write? Would you be a specialist or a generalist and what would your relationship with technology be? Understandably Steve has been thinking very hard about all of these questions and his insights are highly valuable. This episode is a great illustration of how no experience ever goes to waste. Steve is on excellent form and the interview has great pace and intensity. In our world very few people try something genuinely entrepreneurial more than once in their careers and in this meeting you'll learn all of the lessons that Steve has learnt from time out spent a long way out of his comfort zone. It's clear to me that the next role or venture that Steve becomes involved with will benefit immeasurably from this recent intense experience. In the meantime I can highly recommend a listen. NOTES: During our conversation I couldn't remember when Steve was first on the podcast. It was on Episode 8, way back in 2020 when he was CEO of Axis Re: https://thevoiceofinsurance.podbean.com/e/ep8-japan-florida-and-casualty-renewals-preview-steve-arora-axis-re/ LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com

At a fundamental level we all know that Insurance is a force for good in the world. You pay a relatively small premium and if your house burns down, an Insurer will help you rebuild it. But I'm sure most of us will at some time in their careers have felt that what we do day-to-day in our insurance jobs has become increasingly removed and disconnected from those basic principles. Well today I'm talking to someone who is trading a highly successful career in our insurance world for a new career concentrating 100% on the good that the deployment of the knowhow and structures that the insurance industry has developed can have on the poorest across the globe. Charlie Langdale is CEO of Humanity Insured, a charity that deploys its funds to subsidise insurance premiums for communities in low-income countries. The Aid and Development community is very reactive and only tends to arrive and try and pick up the pieces after a major loss event has happened. This podcast goes right to the heart of the economics of aid and development. In it Charlie shows how Insurance can be a force for good and help lift people out of poverty and eventually convert them into growing insurance customers of the future – all because of a little pump-priming from organisations like Humanity Insured. In a world filled with gloomy headlines it's easy to despair and feel that some of the problems facing humanity are simply insurmountable. I guarantee that half an hour with Charlie will inspire you and put a spring in your step. For not only does he believe that the problems can be solved with the economic resources we already have at our disposal, but that it's our industry that has already developed a lot of the solutions the world is going to need. Whether its responding to extreme weather or even saving endangered species, Charlie has a story to tell about how insurance is already helping hundreds of thousands of people. NOTES & ABBREVIATIONS: The FCDO is the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office LINKS: https://humanityinsured.org/ Do get involved. New ideas can be as important as funds. We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com

Today's guests work at a Lloyd's Members' Agent. Their job is to give advice and guidance to Names, the high net worth individuals providing underwriting capital to Lloyd's Syndicates, and their clients provide just under a billion pounds of capacity to the market. There was a time around 20 years ago when such a role might have been seen as perhaps a little quaint – one of those odd quirks that the Lloyd's Market seems to specialise in. Back then the brave new Lloyd's was focused almost exclusively on corporate capital provision and private capital seemed to be condemned to a managed long-term relative decline. A lot has changed since then. These days Director and Head of Syndicate Analysis Emily Apple and Andreas Wichmann Business Development Director at Alpha Insurance Analysts are busy assessing a strong pipeline of both continuing and new business opportunities in the market as entrepreneurs rediscover the attraction of engaging a loyal and dedicated source of meaningful underwriting funds as part of their capital mix. New forms of tenure for Names are also helping make them a more attractive source of capital to Managing Agents, while investors seem finally to be gaining more awareness of the many capital and fiscal advantages of underwriting as a private individual. Emily and Andreas are hugely experienced, highly knowledgeable and great company. They have a great overview of the Lloyd's market and its prospects for ventures new and old and this podcast paints a detailed picture of the opportunities in the market from an investors' perspective. You'll learn a lot and if you've ever wondered what it takes to become a Name and how the whole process works, this episode will give you all the information you need. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com

Today's guest was the very first interviewee on this podcast over 250 episodes and five years ago. She's been on since as part of a multi-person episode, but it's great to get her back on the show one on one. With a new Lloyd's Chairman, CFO and CEO all now announced and either just starting or about to start their tenures, the timing couldn't be better. The Lloyd's Market Association (LMA) represents the interests of underwriting businesses at Lloyd's and Sheila is a very effective leader, spokesperson and focal point for that hugely important constituency. In this interview she sets out the LMA's priorities as the Lloyd's baton is passed to a new team. Sheila is crystal clear on what her members want and this interview is a Tour de Force. We cover everything from the LMA's top ask of the new  regime all the way through to the future of underwriting and capital provision in the market. Sheila's very direct and our conversation doesn't duck thornier topics such as the market's frustratingly slow technological reform process, and the difficult-to-navigate cultural reform agenda. By the way, we made this recording a few days before the unveiling of Patrick Tiernan as the next CEO of Lloyd's, but the messages for the incoming leader are loud and clear and still current. The LMA is an essential and vibrant trade body and Sheila is its equally essential and vibrant voice. And I think the result is essential listening for anyone with an interest in the future direction of the Lloyd's Market. NOTES: We mention a report on Enhanced Underwriting. This was penned by the LMA and Oxbow Partners and is entitled: The Growth of Enhanced Underwriting in the Lloyd's Market: The New Normal? The Executive summary and full download links are here: https://www.lmalloyds.com/LMA/lma/News/Blog/Enhanced_Underwriting_Report.aspx LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com

I love having insurance entrepreneurs on the show explaining their ideas and outlining the ambition they have for their business. It's a great way to discover the best opportunities that are out there in the marketplace. And when the guests are highly experienced, with great track records, it just means that we should pay even more attention what they are seeing. That's why I'm delighted that Michael Price CEO (pictured Left), and Kean Driscoll (Right), President and CUO of Dellwood Insurance Group were able to spare time out of their busy schedules to appear on the Voice of Insurance. If you had the chance how would you go about attacking the best business opportunities in the Insurance industry today? For Michael and Kean it's all about exploiting the increased flow of business that is finding its way into the US Excess and Surplus Lines market. The advent of improved technology means that lots of Small Commercial insurance and even some personal lines are now able to take advantage of the more dynamic, responsive and entrepreneurial underwriting environment to be found outside Admitted Lines. Michael and Kean are applying the lessons learned from full careers in insurance and reinsurance to serving areas of high demand in the largest insurance market in the world. Dellwood is a start-up working at a fascinating time, where Insurance distribution is being remoulded and new technologies such as AI are really beginning to come into their own, just as dislocation and large shifts in demand are being experienced in many segments of the market in both property and casualty. Building a brand new player, with no financial, technological or indeed cultural legacy at a time like this looks like a very exciting move, allowing Dellwood to move fast to fill in the gaps and allow capital access to hopefully sustainably profitable pools of risk. Michael and Kean are laser-focused on the job in hand and this podcast is full to the brim of their wisdom and expertise as they look to capitalise on a career business opportunity and build a new premium insurance franchise. If you ever wanted to climb inside the minds of top insurance thinkers and practitioners in full flight, this is your chance. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com

Today's podcast is another really vibrant and forward-looking addition to the Voice of Insurance canon. I think that's because it's with one of London's most recently-appointed wholesale broking leaders, Tom Quy Managing Director Acrisure London Wholesale Acrisure London Wholesale is a little different from many of its peers. Yes, it handles most of the same sort of high-end specialist placements that any other London wholesaler does, indeed it sources 70% of its business from outside the Acrisure Group. But it is the scale of the opportunity that it has by being attached to Acrisure's impressive retail network that is particularly interesting. Acrisure has a 5% share of US commercial insurance but unlike most of its top-10 global insurance broker peers, 90% of its clients have less than 100 staff. These are clearly not the sort of businesses that would historically have come to London for their insurance. But here's the interesting and exciting part. As tech brings unit costs right down and allows risk to be packaged in new and more efficient ways, the London Market and some of its more differentiated product might be brought to smaller and smaller original clients in ways that benefit underwriters, clients and the brokers connecting them. That's the opportunity that Tom and is team are getting to grips with and that's what makes this such an enlightening and forward-looking discussion. Tom's challenge mirrors that of the entire London Market – if  it can keep driving unit costs down through digitisation while at the same time keeping product quality, relevance and innovation high, it will have hit upon a rich winning formula that its brokers will be able to export around the world. And if it can't, the consequences don't much bear thinking about. Tom's great company and is a very strong and open communicator and this Episode is highly recommended for anyone interested in the best opportunities in the global wholesale insurance markets. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com

Todays' Episode is an invigorating catch-up with someone who was last on the podcast over two years ago. Risto Rossar is CEO of Insly and is a really rare combination in that he is an insurance business builder who realised that helping the insurance industry fully digitise would be a better and more scalable business proposition than continuing to grow the highly successful digital Baltic insurance broker that he had founded. Insly continues to grow at speed, serving fast-growing segments of the market such as MGAs that need full end-to-end insurance software, but are unlikely to be on the radar of the largest vendors. Risto really gets tech and insurance – but he is also a very strong communicator who tends to tell things the way he sees them. This is where we come to the invigorating part that I mentioned at the beginning. Risto's trademark is no-nonsense, down-to-earth analysis of what technologies are and are not likely to be genuinely disruptive to the insurance industry. He is good at seeing through hype and puncturing bubbles. So when someone in his position, with his level of understanding and natural sense of healthy scepticism starts getting genuinely excited about AI, we all need to sit up and listen. What follows is one of the most interesting and credible conversations about the likely long-term disruptive effects of AI on the insurance sector I have had on the show. If you think AI is just going to be nice productivity tool that removes all your dull admin tasks, you need to think again – it will do that but an awful lot more besides. The opportunities to be seized here are enormous but are difficult for those of us used to a very slow-moving status quo to get our heads around. Risto is on exceptional form and is clearly feeling energised and excited for the future – listen on and I think you will too. LINKS:  https://insly.com/

Todays' podcast is another really positive and uplifting meeting with someone right at the top of their game. Fresh from posting record annual profits of over $1.4bn on a top line that exceeded $6bn for the first time, it was perhaps understandable to find Adrian Cox, CEO of Beazley in excellent spirits. Whilst the market may be peaking in terms of pricing, speaking to Adrian it certainly doesn't seem to be peaking in terms of profitable opportunity, and much of this podcast is a dissection of global specialist insurance opportunities in the world and how a top-tier progressive underwriter like Beazley is positioning itself to make the most of them. Whether it be fast-emerging new classes of insurance relating to the decarbonisation of the economy, burgeoning new geopolitical risk and complexity, the rise of parametric covers, the application of artificial intelligence or indeed the fast-changing dynamics of how insurance is transacted, this encounter reveals positive new thinking and investment in abundance. Listen on for all this and more. I think if you listen closely enough you can hear a distillation of Beazley's distinctive culture coming through, not just in what Adrian is saying about the issues of the day, but in the way he is saying it. It seems that it is possible that rigour and discipline combined with worldly curiosity and a willingness to allow controlled experimentation in the understanding that not everything will go to plan can all form key parts of a successful business culture. This is another good episode to file away for when you're in need of a morale-booster. Adrian's enthusiasm and good humour are infectious and I think you'll enjoy listening to this as much as I enjoyed recording it   LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com

This might be turning into a bit of a running theme, but today's podcast is another really positive, really forward-looking encounter with the CEO of a global balance sheet business who is reaping the early benefits of a turnaround and transformation plan. President and CEO of AXIS Capital Vince Tizzio is on really strong form in this interview. In it we tally up where he feels AXIS is currently placed on the journey towards its stated aim of becoming the best specialty underwriter in the world. It's clear that large strides have been made and in our chat Vince details the ongoing programmes, both strategic and operational that he feels are going to help the business achieve his ambitious goals. We also check in on where the best market opportunities currently lie and how AXIS is planning on making the most of them, as well as how the group is navigating opportunities such as AI and the volatile state of global risk of all descriptions. Vince is a great interviewee because he is authentic and wears his heart and his passions on his sleeve. I certainly came away with the feeling that with him what you see is what you get. Listen on an I think you'll be able to hear for yourself. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com

Today's podcast is one of the most positive and optimistic I think I have ever recorded. Andrew Horton Group CEO of QBE has been in the role long enough to have been able to reap some of the rewards of the changes he has made at the global insurer since he took over the top job. Having dealt with legacy issues and posted some remarkable results that have validated his strategy – the mood from this interview is 100% forward-looking and upbeat. Andrew's QBE has a spring in its step and a growth plan to execute into a global insurance and reinsurance market that seems to be throwing up opportunities almost wherever you look. It certainly helped that this was recorded on a pleasant early spring day in London, with plenty of sun in the sky and blossom on the trees, but the difference between this interview and the last one I did with Andrew two years ago is palpable. Today, Andrew is buzzing with energy and good humour and has audibly grown in confidence. In this discussion we make light work of all the issues of the day, taking in topics as diverse as Reinsurance, D&I, the long-term trends of facilitisation and algorithmic underwriting and their consequences, Lloyd's and the London Market, and insuring the transition. So listen on as we take a world tour of market opportunities and a refreshed and revitalised player looking to seize the moment. If you are feeling jaded and in need a tonic – this is just what the doctor ordered! LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com We also thank audio advertiser, The Insurance Network (TIN), organiser of the highly-successful TINtech events series and Data Jam. www.tin.events

Today's guest is without doubt the most successful insurance executive I have had on the show. He's also completely unique in that he is the only insurance boss I am aware of to have run one of the world's largest insurers and its largest broking group. Brian Duperreault is insurance royalty. Having started his career at AIG, he then transformed ACE from a Bermudian upstart to a major global player. He then ran MMC and set it on the road to a radical recovery, founded Hamilton Insurance and then helped AIG get a spring back in its step He has now just founded Mereo Advisors in probably one of the most difficult funding environments for balance-sheet businesses in his long career. But this introduction shouldn't be a run-through of his superb résumé – most of you know all of that already. Before this meeting I'd met Brian a couple of times. I had a brief interview with him once in the early days of the Hamilton era and had chaired him onstage at an Insurance Conference. But today's episode really showcases why the podcast can be a much more intimate and valuable medium than others. In this encounter we had the luxury of less time pressure and what resulted was a long and expansive conversation that is something very different. If you want to know how Brian has found success, listen on – it comes through loud and clear in every sentence. Brian cares deeply about what he does, but it's obvious he cares about all the people in the organisations he has run even more. He is a rare CEO, not because he is brave, morally upstanding, strategically audacious, a natural underwriter and risk-taker who is strong when executing difficult decisions and has a clear vision for how create, grow and run great insurance businesses – he's got all of that in abundance. But on top of that he is self-aware enough to know instinctively when he should hand over to a successor and try something new. As he puts it, he knows you can let a role define you and it can get really hard to leave when you're the big successful boss and everyone always laughs at all your jokes! Some of Brian's most lasting achievements have not just been the growth and performance of businesses while he has run them, but the robust state he has left them in and the continued sustainable growth they have all achieved after he has moved on. I could go on – but I think you get the picture by now. Listening back, I think we managed to do the opportunity justice. Brian's also great fun and we ended up laughing a lot more than I had imagined when poring studiously over my research and reading the superb Biography that has just been written about Brian by longstanding former colleague Wendy Davis Johnson in preparation for this interview. This podcast contains an enormous amount of highly valuable advice. My advice is to listen on and take it all to heart. If as a result anyone listening achieves even a tiny percentage of the success that Brian has, it will have been time well spent. LINKS: Faith and Purpose, The Life and Vision of Insurance Icon Brian Duperreault, is out now and available here: https://duperreaultbio.com/how-to-order-faith-purpose/ I can highly recommend a read. We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com We also thank audio advertiser, The Insurance Network (TIN), organiser of the highly-successful TINtech events series and Data Jam. www.tin.events

This week's guest has probably the best 360-degree understanding of the insurance value chain of anyone I have had on the show. This is because Mike Keating has a career that spans collecting insurance premiums in person and runs all the way through underwriting, backing MGAs, working for and founding MGAs, to working for Private Equity and helping find investment to start new insurance businesses. Now Mike is putting all he has learned into running the Managing General Agents Association (the MGAA) the trade body that represents the MGA community in the UK and Ireland. The MGAA's members write around £15bn – or just under $20b - in GWP, so this is an organisation that carries quite a lot of weight in the market. In this podcast we examine the reasons behind the continued success of the MGA as a vehicle for delivering underwriting talent and the prospects for their growth to continue sustainably into the future. We also learn what is on the MGAA's agenda, in terms of the lobbying work it does as well as what are the latest initiatives from the important educational and networking sides of the organisation. But leaning on Mike's broad experience, our topic ranges are far wider than that. For example, a large part of our discussion extends to include the application of AI in the MGA space. With the average tenure of the underwriting paper backing MGAs hitting new highs, MGAs providing the preferred career path for many underwriters, and with someone as passionate and knowledgeable as Mike looking out for its interests, the future for the UK and Ireland MGA sector looks very healthy. But most importantly Mike is great company and an insurance player through and through and the best possible reason to listen to this podcast is to get the benefit of some of the insights that his long experience has given him. NOTES: We mention Reg Brown. Reg is a Lloyd's luminary who ran his own Syndicate and is the driving force behind founding the MGAA, as well as many other market-wide initiatives and collaborations, most notably the Insurance Museum, of which he is Chairman. https://www.linkedin.com/in/reg-brown-62827313/ LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com We also thank audio advertiser, The Insurance Network (TIN), organiser of the highly-successful TINtech events series and Data Jam. www.tin.events

Today's guest is making a return to the show after a three-year gap. That's way too long for me because the last time she was on the podcast she made such a strong impression that I described her as a dream interviewee. But there are good reasons for the gap – not least a year's gardening leave as she moved to take on one of the biggest jobs in broking. Luckily for all of us Lucy Clarke, President of Risk and Broking at Willis is back on the show. She's still the dream interviewee and given her important new role and Willis's re-stated ambitions to restore the sheen to this historical jewel in the global broking crown, she's more of a dream guest than ever. This podcast doesn't disappoint. In this interview I found Lucy on top form, fully established in her new role and clearly revelling in the task in hand. Here we unpick all of Willis's strategy, from it's ambitious return to reinsurance to its audacious digital broking initiatives, and we put all this in the wider context of Lucy's extraordinarily broad view of the market's ebbs and flows as well as its permanent structural changes and external opportunities and threats, such as those presented by AI Nothing was off the menu and with Lucy what you see is what you get – her drive and passion are always on display. Here's someone with their sleeves rolled up and clearly enjoying a dream job scenario unfolding in front of them. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com We also thank audio advertiser, The Insurance Network (TIN), organiser of the highly-successful TINtech events series and Data Jam. www.tin.events

Today's episode is different because I'm not talking to an industry CEO, but somebody who has made a career of holding industry CEOs to account. Since before the turn of the millennium Ian Gutterman has been analysing the insurance industry on behalf of investors and in that time has sparred with all the top CEOs and executive teams. Analysts and journalists are kindred spirits – we both sit on the outside of the industry looking in and we both tend to speak to the same sorts of people, although we tend to ask different sorts of questions when we do. After a while we tend to seek each other out to compare notes. Journalists seek out the smartest analysts with the strongest personalities and the best communication skills and get them to explain some of the more technical and academic questions driving the industry. Ian is a journalist's dream because he is incredibly intelligent but also refreshingly direct. Ian has personality and strong convictions in abundance and in this episode we cover all the big questions affecting the industry today, from when the 15-year bull market for intermediary valuations might come to an end, the wider consequences of the California wildfires and whether the insurers really have a proper handle on cat risk, to whether recent bouts of casualty reserve strengthening are now the end of the matter, or the lessons from the insurtech boom and why Venture Capital and insurance don't mix. Ian and I had a lot of fun on this recording. Listen on and I think you will too Enjoy the podcast NOTES Ian writes a really strong insurance blog at https://iansbnr.com/ I always read it and I highly recommend you do too. It rarely pulls any punches. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com We also thank audio advertiser, The Insurance Network (TIN), organiser of the highly-successful TINtech events series and Data Jam. www.tin.events

Today's episode is packed full of really practical insights because this one is all about making things happen. So often in our sector we can very clearly see the change we have to make or the new system we have to adopt to be able to improve the way we do things, but we find it really hard  to achieve final implementation. It's as if the green pastures are right in front of us, tantalisingly in view, but there is a steep ravine that we have to cross to get there. As Ian Summers (Pictured, Top), who has been helping his employers and clients implement major change projects all his long career notes in this podcast, it's incredibly common that the change management side of a project is overlooked or underestimated. And even if the systems are ready, are the people in the business really ready to start using them with confidence? This kind of skill is a very specialist one and its very specific to each industry. That's why it is great to have insurance change management specialist Melody Miller (Pictured, bottom) on the show. Melody is an Executive Director at Sea Change London, which is a member of AdvantageGo's ecosystem and is an expert in getting complex, time-sensitive and often existential mega change projects over the line. In this podcast we dissect the major changes facing players in the London and International insurance markets. Ian and Melody are on excellent form and do a great job of simplifying often complicated ideas so that laypeople like you and me can understand them. So, if you want to learn how to handle change better and get an expert feel for where difficult market-wide projects including the transformational but mission-critical Blueprint Two might be headed in 2025, I can highly recommend a listen. LINKS: We thank our sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com https://www.seachangelondon.com

Today's Episode has a really special feel to it and that's all down to this week's guest. Graham Evans is Executive Vice President and Head of International Insurance at Westfield Specialty Insurance and is bringing all that experience to bear as US Mutual Group Westfield looks to build out a globally diversified specialty operation to complement its core US insurance business. In this podcast we assess the prospects for the London and broader International specialty insurance markets and go into detail about Westfield International's ethos and growth strategy moving forward. Graham has been working in the underwriting rooms of the London Market since the mid-1980s, so has been a London underwriter boy and man through markets of all descriptions. His is the sort of experience that is exceedingly hard to replicate and, listening back to this recording, it's plain that all his answers bring a lifetime of London Market expertise to bear. This makes for a very enjoyable listening experience, particularly when the current prospects for the London Market are looking more exciting than at any other time in Graham's long career. So listen on as Graham explains how the 177-year-old Westfield Group is planning to bring something a little different to the already eclectic mix of the London and International insurance markets. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com

Cyber insurance has been on an epic growth journey in the past decade and in that time has been transformed from a new and exciting product into a maturing pillar of the global specialty insurance and reinsurance market. This is a class of business that has come so far that is now developing its own catastrophe treaty reinsurance and Insurance-Linked Securities (ILS) markets Those developments has been made possible in large part due to the enormous investment that the broader Cyber ecosystem has made in researching, protecting, remediating and modelling the risk that underwriters and the capital backing them are taking on. Cyber modelling specialist CyberCube has been one of the prime movers behind this increased market sophistication and is also a member of AdvantageGo's ecosystem. In this podcast I get a masterclass on the state of the cyber market from Ross Wirth, CyberCube's Head of Partnership & Ecosystem (pictured bottom) and this is reinforced by a vision of what a smart state-of-the art underwriting work bench and underwriting control system can currently do and will be able to do in the near future from Simon Fagg, (pictured top) who is a Director and Product & Solutions Strategist at AdvantageGo. Simon has had a fascinating a career during which he has made the transition from underwriting itself to the design of underwriting systems and Ross has over 20 years' experience leading complex change programmes at global insurers. Between this remarkable duo we have all the bases covered. So, I f you are interested in where the cutting edge between technology and best-in-class underwriting is today, and where it is heading in the coming years, listen on, I think you will find this a very rewarding experience. LINKS: https://www.advantagego.com/  https://www.cybcube.com/

Today is a first. I've had a many senior industry executives on the show who have started their careers as actuaries, but I've never met anyone who already knew when they left school that they definitely wanted to be one. Martin Burke is different and this is what makes him an excellent podcast guest. In his own words he has walked something of a squiggly career path that has brought him to his current position as Chief Underwriting Officer at Lloyd's stalwart MS Amlin. But having walked all the bends in the road to get where he is now has made Martin an extremely well-rounded CUO. It's obvious none of his time spent on reserving, pricing and in the finance and risk departments has gone to waste. To re-run the cliché, actuaries aren't famous for being great communicators, but that just makes the ones who are stand out. Martin has the gift of the gab and that makes him a high value guest to someone like me. An interviewee who can understand and, more importantly, summarise and explain complicated ideas in a way that laypeople can understand, is podcasting gold dust. And when that person is also responsible for profitably growing a £2bn (US$2.5bn) book in today's market, this makes for a complete and satisfying listen. Here we run through MS Amlin's strategy in an evolving market and take in Martin's views on an eclectic range of topics, including the impacts of the latest major loss activity on insurer and reinsurer appetites, the best applications of technology and Ai, as well as his priorities for where he feels the London Market should be developing as a collective as the leadership regime at Lloyd's transitions. I think you'll find Martin fun to spend time with and full of surprises. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com

I'd like you to cast your mind back to 2016 when the insurtech phenomenon really started to emerge. It was a very exciting time as tech entrepreneurs and venture capitalists had finally spotted the huge opportunities that would become available if they started to use their skill and financial wherewithal to help transform the way the global insurance industry goes about its business. The task was daunting, but the possibilities seemed endless. That year Ben Hubbard co-founded Parsyl, the business he still heads today. The firm made it into the first cohort of the Lloyd's Lab and hasn't looked back. Now in 2025 Parsyl has come through its adolescence and has a made an impact in a niche segment of the cargo market where it has first been able to use its tech savvy to give itself a sustainable competitive edge. Now eight years into the project, I'd argue the excitement is now greater because Parsyl is only just getting going and is poised to move into new lines of business. Parsyl's insurtech peers that didn't make it usually failed because they were tech companies that didn't know if they wanted to completely disrupt or collaborate with the incumbent insurance market – and it also turned out that many of them fundamentally underestimated how hard insurance can be to execute well and at the right scale.  Parsyl is still here and thriving because it embedded itself in an entrepreneurial corner of the Lloyd's market and has taken the best it has to offer, while adding its own extraordinary, almost alien layer of technological understanding on top. It's a best of both worlds philosophy. So often we hear or read about the future of underwriting, as if it is something that hasn't quite arrived yet, but will come eventually, if only we can be a little more patient. Well, the wait is over – what Parsyl has built has fulfilled the promise of 2016 and then some Ben and I met face to face on a stormy London afternoon in winter and the conversation fairly crackled along. I defy you not to be enthused by Ben's affable and easy-to-digest philosophy on how to make insurance better, more relevant to clients and more profitable for its capital backers. Just to give you a taste, this is a business that already runs 100% of its submissions through Ai, constantly revamps its products over rolling two-week cycles and updates its models from experience and new third-party data every four months. For incumbents this is jaw-dropping stuff. Luckily for us Ben is a friendly face who can help make this revolution palatable and easy to understand. The future's already here, so listen on to get yourself up to date. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com

Today's episode is going to dive deep into the fascinating world of Employment Practices Liability, or EPL. This $4-5bn premium class of business is one that has grown into a standalone specialist line over the last 25 years and is one whose growth is almost guaranteed to continue into the future. I say that growth is almost guaranteed because its progress is almost wholly aligned with the parallel progress of society at large. As society develops and standards and expectations are raised in the workplace, so the consequences of failing to keep up with best practice will become steadily more severe for employers who fall behind. Legislation changes and over time tends to create new forms of liability for employers. At the same time unwritten societal norms evolve, almost always faster than the legislation can keep up. Behaviour that might have been acceptable or even encouraged 30 years ago may today be the cause of new grievances and complaints in the workplace. Similarly, as technological change accelerates and the way we work and where we work evolves, so new avenues for potential claims are being created at pace. Also as workforces age and become more diverse, once again the potential for conflicting views on what is and what is not acceptable conduct by colleagues, employees and bosses of differing ages and cultural backgrounds is increased. To sum up some liabilities are statutory and laid out in black and white, but others are becoming far more subjective; one person's idea of absolute impartiality may be another's idea of unjustifiable discrimination. Something many see as harmless teambuilding fun might be harassment when viewed from another perspective. And because many employers and industry sectors follow very similar HR systems, Employment practices claims are also potentially systemic in nature. This merely adds potential fuel to the fire. There's an awful lot going on here and this is clearly not a line of business that the unprepared should be dabbling in. That's why I have assembled a trio of experts from underwriting, claims and the legal profession to shed light from all angles on the core questions and key trends affecting this dynamic class. Bethany Greenwood (pictured top) is Beazley's Group Head of Specialty Risks and Kamal Chhibber (pictured middle) is its Claims Focus Group Lead for International Financial Lines. (By the way, Kamal Chhibber is known as Chhibbs by everyone, so this is how he is addressed throughout the podcast) These two senior insurance practitioners have been professionally assisted by Louise Bloomfield (pictured bottom), a partner at UK law firm DAC Beachcroft. The intention is that this podcast will be of value to anyone with an interest in this burgeoning casualty line and the fast-evolving cultural and legal territory that it inhabits. I've spoken to the experts, so you absolutely don't have to be one yourself. NOTES AND ABBREVIATIONS ADA = The Americans with Disabilities Act (US) EEOC = The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (US) ACAS = The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (UK)   RECOMMENDED FURTHER READING Beazley has just launched a report entitled Spotlight On Boardroom Risk 2024 It deals with the evolving boardroom risk landscape, from business interruption and supply chain risks to regulations, reputation, and employer risks.

Today's guest is someone with the essence of insurance running right through his veins. That's because he has been working in our industry since the age of sixteen and has accumulated over forty years of experience. Now as CEO of the Lloyd's and Bermuda insurer and reinsurer Antares Mike Van der Straaten has a unique viewpoint of the global insurance market from which to apply his accumulated knowledge and understanding. Like many of its peers Antares has undergone a rebuilding and restructuring in the past few years and after steadying and right-sizing its business is now stepping out to seek measured profitable growth once more. I found this a really enjoyable and enriching discussion. In a world seemingly dominated by PhDs, Mike's remarkable career is a reminder that, when it is performing as it should, the insurance industry is an education and vocation rolled into one and rewards intelligence, creativity, common sense and hard work in the most meritocratic of ways. Mike is a great guest and blends the best of the old and the new. For example in this podcast we examine many of the factors that don't change, such as the shifts in the market cycle and distribution trends, but at the same time we also dissect some of the most progressive issues affecting the sector, such as the best applications of Ai and the streamlining of the underwriting and placement process. Mike always says what he thinks and this candour is extremely refreshing. NOTES: We mention a Rolf Tolle. Rolf was Lloyd's first Performance Management Director. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com

Today's Episode is exceptional because in terms of his seniority and the sheer size and global nature of his role, my guest is in a very small peer group. Chris Williams is Chairman of International Business at the Tokio Marine Group and that means he helps oversee a business with a $75bn dollar balance sheet and 44,000 employees, operating in over 40 countries. Only a handful of my guests on this show in the last five years have a role of such global depth and breadth. An Australian who has worked in London and spent most of his career in the US, Chris is very much a model citizen of the global specialist insurance and reinsurance world that this podcast looks to serve. In the past twenty years Tokio Marine Group has embarked on a highly successful internationalisation strategy that has entailed multiple blue-chip acquisitions in countries all over the world. This has turned it from a dominant Japanese insurer with only around 3% of earnings coming from overseas into a global force that already makes around 75% of its earnings outside of Japan, with that proportion almost certain to continue growing over time. Chris joined the group through its 2015 acquisition of HCC so in many ways is the personal embodiment of this strategy. This podcast is a great distillation of that Tokio global plan and where it may be heading next, but it's also a chance to pick the brains of an industry veteran who can combine a fifty-year career with a genuinely global overview. Chris's views on the rise of MGAs, the prospects for renewed M&A in 2025, the best application of AI, the debates over rate and reserve adequacy in the casualty space and the overall state of the global market are all unequivocally and candidly expressed here. Chris is exceptionally good company and I caught him on great form in this podcast. He may be one of the most senior executives in our world but at heart he still comes across as a genuine, down-to-earth Australian who tells things the way he sees them. The fact that he has seen so much in such a wide and varied career just makes this Episode all the more valuable. Listen on and you'll see what I mean. I guarantee you'll enjoy it and learn a huge amount. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com We also thank audio advertiser, The Insurance Network (TIN), organiser of the highly-successful TINtech events series. This week they are advertising their successful TINtech London Market event, which will be happening on 4th February 2025.

Today's Episode is half of a duo of special podcasts released simultaneously that are looking to summarise the 1.1 reinsurance renewals. In previous years I have compiled these interviews into a documentary-style episode to work as a précis, but this year I enjoyed my interactions so much that I really didn't want to be chopping them up into clips, so I have produced two separate episodes instead. Both my guests will be familiar to regular listeners and they both bring very different, very complimentary qualities. For a full picture of the renewal and the current state of the reinsurance market I highly recommend you listen to both This Episode is with James Vickers, Chairman of Gallagher Re International, who has been at the forefront of the reinsurance broking world for over forty years. The other, Episode 237, is with David Flandro, Head of Industry Analysis and Strategic Advisory at Howden Re. With David we examine all the broad macro factors washing across the reinsurance market and get a great feeling for the big picture. But in this podcast with James we get into much more micro detail. This satisfying discussion examines the annual close encounter between clients' wants and needs and reinsurers' appetites as well as their red lines. A listen will tell you that this market is not as black and white as a quick read of some of the simple headlines about declining prices might have you believe. There are many shades of grey and an enormous amount of differentiation is happening between reinsurers and their customers James is on exceptional form and in this episode he doesn't duck any of my questions and we don't leave any stones unturned. If you want to be really well informed you need to talk to someone as personable and in the know as James – come and join us! Gallagher Re has published its comprehensive 1.1 First View report entitled Differentiation Rewarded. Make sure you Read it along with this Episode LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com We also thank audio advertiser, The Insurance Network (TIN), organiser of the highly-successful TINtech events series. This week they are advertising their successful TINtech London Market event, which will be happening on 4th February 2025.

Today's Episode is half of a duo of special podcasts released simultaneously that are looking to summarise the 1.1 reinsurance renewals. In previous years I have compiled these interviews into a documentary-style episode to work as a précis, but this year I enjoyed my interactions so much that I really didn't want to be chopping them up into clips, so there are two instead of one. Both my guests will be familiar to regular listeners and they both bring very different, very complimentary qualities. For a full picture of the renewal and the current state of the reinsurance market I highly recommend you listen to both This Episode is with David Flandro, Head of Industry Analysis and Strategic Advisory at Howden Re. David has a deep analytical background, but in his long career has not, as far as I am aware, had to broker and place a risk in anger. The other, Episode 238, is with James Vickers, Chairman of Gallagher Re International, who has been at the forefront of the reinsurance broking world for over forty years. With James I will be getting more into the detail of the cut and thrust of the annual duel between clients' wants and reinsurers' red lines and ascertaining this highly experienced broker's feel for today's marketplace. But let's get back to this podcast. In this lively discussion we examine all the macro factors washing across the reinsurance market in great detail. A listen will be a great education on how the best analysts gain their understanding of the market and will give you a good idea of where we are now and where we might be heading in 2025, provided external events don't blow us off course. David may be one of the smartest people in our business, but he's also great fun to spend time with. He is so good at explaining complicated ideas about the fundamental capital building blocks of insurance and reinsurance and the factors that affect them, that he always makes me feel a lot smarter for having spent time with him. NOTES Howden Re has published an extremely detailed and comprehensive report full of insights entitled Past the Pricing Peak Read it along with this Episode.  LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com We also thank audio advertiser, The Insurance Network (TIN), organiser of the highly-successful TINtech events series. This week they are advertising their successful TINtech London Market event, which will be happening on 4th February 2025.

Today's guest is a rare breed of broker looking to build a sophisticated new intermediary operating at the higher end of the market. In the past two years the business he leads has gone from a standing start to handling around $1.6bn in premiums. Andrew Matson and Augment Risk have done this by being very targeted and very progressive, breaking insurance and reinsurance down to its core element – capital. At a fundamental level insurance is a tool for capital protection and capital management. If designed and executed well this is a tool that produces better outcomes for clients and these benefits are ultimately measurable in improved return on equity. Of course, what I have just described is about as far removed from the traditional broker model as it is possible to be. This model might not be for everyone, but that is beside the point. Augment is already demonstrating that there is an eager community of sophisticated global buyers keen to discover what a holistic client- and capital-focused broker might be able to do for them. And that's what makes this encounter so interesting. Andrew has a singular vision for what he wants to achieve and after this podcast you'll be in on the act too. But we don't just talk about Augment's plans: legacy, parametric insurance, the future of insurance securitisation and the long-term effects of the digitisation of the insurance value chain are all examined in depth. Andrew is ultra-smart and highly passionate and his ambition sears through this episode. For anyone disillusioned with siloed, product-focused and constrained broking, here is someone with a genuinely attractive and genuinely original proposition to put to you. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com We also thank audio advertiser, The Insurance Network (TIN), organiser of the highly-successful TINtech events series. This week they are advertising their successful TINtech London Market event, which will be happening on 4th February 2025.

Today's episode is an absolute blast. That's because the person I am talking to is unique. And I think that's because he spent quite a large proportion of his career a long way outside insurance and discovered our sector relatively late. But the crucial point is that it wasn't that late. Graham Elliot CEO of Crux Underwriting had enough experience outside the sector not to be too dyed in the wool and full of industry preconceptions, but he has been with us long enough to have had time to have already made a serious entrepreneurial impact on our sector at Oxygen Insurance Brokers, Aqua Underwriting and Azur Group. I first met him about eight years ago at the beginning of the insurtech boom and found him incredibly valuable as someone who was very eloquent and adept at explaining the benefits of technology to a traditional insurance audience in words it could understand. Graham's latest venture is Crux Underwriting, a new Lloyd's MGA he has set up with experienced Political Risk and Political Violence underwriter, Mike O'Connor. But this podcast is way broader than Crux's opening line of business. Our talk is an incredibly wide-ranging tour of the most advanced thinking around how global wholesale and specialty insurance and reinsurance is set to develop in the digital age that is currently dawning. AI, algorithmic trading, genuinely realtime digitised underwriting systems and the reasons behind the boom in MGAs are all discussed in great detail. If you still haven't quite got your head around where the market is likely to be heading after our digital big bang is finally reached, I recommend this talk as a wonderful place to start. Graham is charismatic and charming and I guarantee it won't be long before your imagination is sparked and you are swept up in the positive appreciation of some of the enormous opportunities that are available to smart entrepreneurs in today's market. This is a great way to start the year. LINKS We thank our Special Episode sponsor Stephens Rickard: https://www.stephensrickard.com/

Today's guest can boast a 40-year career in the reinsurance business and now leads a global reinsurer with around $3bn in gross written premium and approximately 250 employees. Dieter Winkel is President of Liberty Mutual Re and this podcast is very timely, given its positioning just ahead of the key 1.1 reinsurance renewal season. Dieter is everything you want in a reinsurer: experienced, probably unshockable and very measured and consistent, as well as being easy to talk to. In this Episode we cover all the major issues affecting the global reinsurance market, from the general state of the market cycle, and trends in global specialty, property and casualty and retro all the way through cyber to the burgeoning world of parametrics and the best applications of AI in reinsurance. This a very enjoyable interview with a consummate reinsurance professional, who has lived through multiple market cycles and is an excellent communicator and great company to boot. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com We also thank audio advertiser, The Insurance Network (TIN), organiser of the highly-successful TINtech events series. This week they are advertising their successful TINtech London Market event, which will be happening on 4th February 2025.

Today's podcast is a first for The Voice of Insurance. It's the first time I've done an outside broadcast. And the reason is a special one. David Howden started what was then Howden Pangbourne just over thirty years ago with two others and, famously, a dog, in a tiny office on St Dunstan's Hill in London. Now that business is around six thousand three hundred times bigger in terms of staff numbers and infinitely larger in terms of revenue and has become a major global insurance and reinsurance operator working all over the world. I had been trying to get David back on the show for a while as it had already been 2 years since his last appearance alongside Rod Fox after the acquisition of reinsurance broker TigerRisk. The message came back that he might be tempted to do it as long as we could do something different. So this is indeed completely different. David and I met up at St Dunstan's one morning two weeks ago and went for a walk around the Insurance district of London we both know so well, taking in the sights, but also all of Howden's five London head offices past and present along the way. Inevitably we get a bit of a history lesson and hear lots of insightful stories and some fun anecdotes from along the amazing Howden entrepreneurial journey of the last three decades amid a fast-changing London and international insurance market. But far more importantly we also discuss the core issues affecting the present and the future of that market and how Howden is positioning itself within it. Howden Re, Dual and the MGA boom, the big question over whether Howden might enter US retail broking, ongoing broking consolidation, big capital questions around what structures make the most sense as Howden continues to scale, the firm's latest 30/30 strategic plan and other key decisions facing the Howden Group now and over the decades to come all get comprehensively dealt with. There's nothing like a good walk for opening up a better quality of conversation. David's passion and enthusiasm are fizzling through every second of this fun and all-encompassing discussion. If you want to know how David got this far do listen on, you'll learn an awful lot. But I think a better reason to carry on listening will be to hear where he is heading in the next few years and how he plans to get there. By the time we close our conversation in Dave's Wine Bar at the foot of Howden's current HQ, you'll be much wiser, but probably needing a sit down and a cup of coffee as much as I was. NOTES: If this has piqued your interest, there are some handy highlights of the Howden story here: https://www.howdengroupholdings.com/about-us/our-story The other broking firms that get the most mentions in this Episode are Spear Gulland, acquired by Howden in 1997 and major Spanish intermediary Gil y Carvajal, bought by Aon in 1998. I worked at Gil y Carvajal's London office from 1992-95 and again 1997-98, hence my extra inside knowledge of St Dunstan's. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com We also thank audio advertiser, The Insurance Network (TIN), organiser of the highly-successful TINtech events series. This week they are advertising their successful TINtech London Market event, which will be happening on 4th February 2025.

Today's episode is the latest in a series of podcasts that are all about highlighting the technology companies that are part of AdvantageGo's ecosystem. And this one is really special because it involves the boss of one of the ecosystem's most essential core partners. Aidan O'Neill is the CEO of DOCOsoft, which is the firm on whose systems around half of the London Market's claims are handled. Aidan has been involved with the London Market for around 25 years and since the advent of the electronic claims file in 2008 DOCOsoft has built a leading market position around claims software. Aidan and Ian are both people who anyone who has been part of the London Market community is likely to know or have met at least once. And because of that in many ways this podcast is a personal embodiment of the ecosystem that Ian and AdvantageGo are trying to build – and this itself is a reflection of the wider ecosystem of collaborating and competing entities that make up the broader London Market that it serves. Ian and Aidan have been collaborating for many years and get on extremely well. So in this fun episode we get an overview of DOCOsoft and all the latest news on the ecosystem, but we also get the benefit of all of Ian and Aidan's collective wisdom looking beyond the upcoming reforms of Blueprint 2 and into a world of straight-through processing and a market where the true benefits of new technologies such as AI are going to be reaped. Greater productivity, better client service and outcomes and a much stronger flow of business into London are some of the prizes that Ian and Aidan can see just over the horizon. It's inspiring stuff and the next half an hour is going to rattle by. LINKS  https://www.advantagego.com https://docosoft.com/

Summary This podcast features an interview with Dawn Miller, Lloyd's Chief Commercial Officer and CEO of Lloyd's Americas. Miller discusses her career, her dual roles at Lloyd's, and her strategies for modernising the market's image and operations. She highlights initiatives to improve transparency, streamline processes, and attract new business. --------- The oldest showbiz adage of them all is to always leave them wanting more and this week's episode does exactly that That's because it is a very short, sharp blast of energy from start to finish. Dawn Miller is Lloyd's Chief Commercial Officer and has just taken over as its Americas CEO. Not many people have the energy to take on two huge roles, but it's clear after this meeting that Dawn isn't like many people. Half an hour with Dawn is worth at least an hour with someone else. So hang on as Dawn defines the essence of what her Lloyd's roles are and she tells us her goals and strategies for presenting the best side of the marketplace to the world today. I think Dawn is the culture change at Lloyd's of the last few years personified. Listening to someone as pro-active, positive and passionate as her, you already know the market has become the polar opposite of the venerable but slight stuffy institution it might once have been. Indeed Dawn explains that probably her biggest job is debunking all the accumulated myths and baggage that have arisen around the perceived complexity, time and expense of dealing with Lloyd's over its long history. This one packs a huge amount into a relatively small space. You won't have time to catch your breath. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com We also thank audio advertiser, The Insurance Network (TIN), organiser of the highly-successful TINtech events series. This week they are advertising their successful TINtech London Market event, which will be happening on 4th February 2025.

Today's episode is a real treat. With all Voice of Insurance podcasts the aim is to be able to get to a level of comfort and ease with a guest so that what we end up hearing is as close you can get to listening in on a lively conversation between two good insurance market friends in a bar. This week I think we managed it and that's down to my guest, Nick Line, the Chief Underwriting Officer of Markel International. Nick has had a fascinating career, almost all of it at Markel and one of the forerunner companies that it acquired to make its entry into the London Market in the late 1990s. Nick has been through markets hard and soft as well as reserving cycles plump with redundancy followed by equal and opposite inverse periods of insufficiency and strengthening. You could say he has seen most things – and he also seen those phenomena through different lenses as he started his career as an actuary and only more recently took a more public-facing role. Nick's story is Markel International's story too- as well as that of the evolving London and wider international insurance markets over the last 30 years. As the market has become more technically sophisticated and reserving, pricing, capital and risk have to be measured and controlled, it has become perfectly logical that a CUO might not necessarily be someone who has written a risk in anger themselves We cover quite a bit of history but it is the forward-looking parts of this podcast that are the most rewarding because Nick combines all the technical smarts one would expect from an actuary with the communication skills of the best CEOs. His is a vision of the tech-and-data-empowered underwriter and global insurance market of the future, but one where the magic always still happens at the behest of a human insurance professional. Markel International has grown quickly in the hard market of the last few years and this podcast is a record of a business that has found a groove and is firing on all cylinders. We made this recording in Markel's London office only aided by coffee, tea and water with no beer or wine anywhere to be seen. But by the end it's almost as if the champagne were flowing as tongues and jaws were loosened and expansive ideas were unleashed on the world. This makes for a fun listen that is brimming with smart observations and interesting takes from Nick. I hope you enjoy this one as much as I did. We also thank audio advertiser, The Insurance Network (TIN), organiser of the highly-successful TINtech events series. This week they are advertising their successful TINtech London Market event, which will be happening on 4th February 2025. But before then Data Jam, which is focused on exploring the implications and opportunities of data, analytics, AI and automation in the insurance sector, takes place on 28th November at Convene, 133 Houndsditch, London EC3. I'm going to be there. Get 20% off using the code ‘voice' when you sign up Here

In today's Episode we are getting to grips with all the key questions surrounding the hugely important issue of exposure management and modelling in our sector. Models are a core part of our business, but as we have come to rely more and more heavily on their output, many fundamental questions arise. For instance, how much of a worry should it be that the market is dominated by two very large players? Or do enough C-suite executives really understand how models work or know the right questions to ask of their exposure management teams? And are we any closer to finding efficient cross-industry ways of making sure that the exposure data upon which our modelling is based is accurate and easily transferable in digital form? To assist me in this task are three people with vast experience in attacking these questions from all angles. Emma Watkins is Head of Exposure Management & Aggregation at Lloyd's and as such has oversight of one of the largest combined books of business anywhere in the world. Rupert Atkin is an underwriting veteran who has had a long and illustrious career. The Former CEO of Lloyd's Underwriter Talbot is also a former Deputy Chair of Lloyd's and Chair of the Lloyd's Market Association. Rupert currently serves on multiple boards, including as Chairman of Lloyd's businesses Ark Managing Agency and Carbon Underwriting as well as a Director at brokers AmWins Group and Alwen Hough Johnson. Finally Dickie Whitaker is the founder and CEO of the not-for-profit open source modelling platform, the Oasis Loss Modelling Framework. Dickie can trace his long career back to the foundation of cat modelling firm Eqecat and also spent over a decade in senior roles at reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter. Most recently he founded the open peer-reviewed Journal of Catastrophe Risk and Resilience. It's clear our panel is well qualified for the job, but what I enjoyed most about this gathering was the ease and good humour with which my guests took on the subjects in hand. This could have been a dry and academic affair, but it was absolutely nothing like that. The conversation is lively and positively buzzes with energy. NOTES: Oasis LMF has produced a fascinating report Navigating the Storm that makes a great accompaniment to this podcast. Download it Here

Today's guest is going to be giving us a masterclass in a really specialist and relatively new class of business that most of us will have heard about over the last 15-20 years, but few will have had the chance to get to know intimately. The class is Warranty and Indemnity (W&I) which is also often known as Reps and Warranties, and the expert who is going to guide us through this fascinating world is James Dodd, founder of recently-launched specialist MGA, Devonshire Underwriting. James is an exceptional entrepreneur and this podcast will answer all the questions you had about this exciting class of business but were too scared to ask, as well as leave you in no doubt of the scale of ambition of James and his growing team. We'll learn the ins and outs of this specialist line as well as the state of its finely-balanced markets. James is a great communicator and a patient teacher and if you give me the next half an hour, I promise you'll learn an awful lot, as well as have some fun on the way. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com We also thank audio advertiser, The Insurance Network (TIN), organiser of the highly-successful TINtech events series. They are advertising their new London-based event, Data Jam, which is focused on exploring the implications and opportunities of data, analytics, AI and automation in the insurance sector. It's on 28th November at Convene, 133 Houndsditch, London EC3. I'm going to be there. Get 20% off using the code ‘voice' when you sign up Here

Today's guest is quite out of the ordinary for the Voice of Insurance. Normally guests on the podcast can recount multi-decade careers in insurance from the time they fell into the industry up to the present day. Today's guest is extraordinary because he is someone of vast experience in his field but who has only just been recruited into the insurance industry. John Mason is the CEO of London Market electronic placing provider PPL and can boast a glittering career running the core systems and platforms that support hugely important global financial markets in other financial sectors outside of insurance. From this encounter I can tell you straight away that I think that we have a lot more to learn from John than he does from us. But thankfully for us John is not the sort of outsider who has come to lecture us on how to drag our antiquated trading systems into line with markets that fully digitised decades ago. John is an experienced leader and the type of communicator who understands that a market that syndicates bespoke structured insurance coverage across the globe is bound to throw up many unique complications and challenges He gets the tone just right – he is here to do an important job and he has a clear vision of how to go about it, but he is very conscious of the need to meet us where we are and show how tech is going to make the way we already work way more efficient and higher added value, rather than try and force us to completely change the way we do business. And that's where this extraordinary podcast adds its value. John is easily the most eloquent leader running a core insurance technology platform I have ever interviewed. He knows where the pitfalls lie and has the experience to know how to execute large, complicated, transformational projects. He hasn't been with us long, but the ideas we discuss in the time that follows are highly impressive and are set to transform frontline brokers' and underwriters' day-to-day relationship with the technology they use to carry out their jobs. They could unleash a wave of productivity and creativity that would completely re-set the market's relationship with itself and with the rest of the world. It's extraordinary stuff – but as I said at the beginning, John is very much out of the ordinary. LINKS: We mention a video that PPL has produced outlining the vision behind its recently-announced partnership with Microsoft. I highly recommend a view: https://vimeo.com/1017109828  https://placingplatformlimited.com

Today's guest is a longstanding executive with an incredibly strong resumé who is running one of the legacy sector's most respected outfits. Bill O'Farrell is CEO of Premia Holdings and as such has an excellent overview of this rapidly maturing segment of the market. In the podcast Bill and I look at the state of the legacy market and how it is likely to be interacting with the live market going forward. At a time when the live market is undergoing one of its periodic crises of confidence in US casualty, it is particularly valuable to talk to someone who has spent much of his career making a living out of taking on and managing long-tail liabilities of all complexions. We also examine how the structure of the legacy market is evolving towards a partnership model in which repeat transactions with live market counterparties are much more likely than in the past. We also look at innovation and the best applications for AI within legacy as well as the prospects for an important role for the sector to play in the nascent casualty ILS market. Bill's not only incredibly experienced and knowledgeable, but he's also very easy-going and really enjoyable company and the next half an hour will pass by very quickly. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com We also thank audio advertiser, The Insurance Network (TIN), organiser of the highly-successful TINtech events series. They are advertising their new London-based event, Data Jam, which is focused on exploring the implications and opportunities of data, analytics, AI and automation in the insurance sector. It's on 28th November at Convene, 133 Houndsditch, London EC3. I'm going to be there. Get 20% off using the code ‘voice' when you sign up Here

Todays' guest is a senior treaty underwriting executive with such a strong technical and systems background that he ended up joining a firm dedicated to solving his sector's problems. Bevis Tetlow is CEO of Imaginera, a business that produces specialist IT systems specifically designed for the big-ticket end of the market. Imaginera is also a highly specialist IT consultant to the industry. Bevis is one of us and speaks our language and that's what makes this exchange so accessible and valuable. Here we dissect the world of workbenches and how state-of-the-art systems designed for reinsurers and other high-level specialist underwriters should look like in 2024. We also get Bevis's views on where the next developments in technology are likely to take the high-end underwriting and broking businesses of the future. Bevis is great company and this podcast packs an awful lot of accumulated wisdom into the next half an hour or so. I learnt a lot and so I think will you NOTES: Bevis mentions a Toby and a Michelle. These are Toby and Michelle Crawford, the original founders of Imaginera back in 2013. An abbreviation slipped through. A PAS (sometimes spelt out P.A.S. and sometimes pronounced ‘pazz') is a Policy Administration System. LINKS: https://www.imaginera.co.uk/

TRANSCRIPT HERE With a career spanning more than 30 years, today's guest is a senior executive who has the London insurance market well and truly in his blood. John Fowle has changed employer since his last appearance on this podcast just under three years ago and with a year under his belt as CEO of Atrium Underwriters, now seemed the perfect time to get him back on the show. Atrium is a Lloyd's blue-chip performer, respected in the market for its agility and underwriting skill across the cycle, and ability to punch well above its weight. As Lloyd's and Atrium are experiencing some of the best market conditions and underwriting results in their histories, this was a meeting with an executive at a business with great prospects in a market that is openly supportive to growth and innovation. With the world effectively Atrium's oyster, there are many doors and options currently open to this carrier. With so many potential choices available, the conversation that follows reveals a lot about John and Atrium's singular view of the insurance world – a view that has stood them both in good stead over the last 30 years. We talk about the prospects for pricing and continued business flow into the London Market, a new-found maturity over collaboration, smart distribution and innovation and get specific updates on some of the classes in which Atrium is recognised as a leader. John is a straight-talking guest who doesn't duck any of my more sensitive questions, but for me it's his deep understanding of how the market fits together and what it does best, coupled with a senior manager's knowledge of how to get the best out of high-performing underwriters that really shines through this Episode. Listen on and I think you'll see what I mean. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com We also thank audio advertiser, The Insurance Network (TIN), organiser of the highly-successful TINtech events series. They are advertising their new London-based event, Data Jam, which is focused on exploring the implications and opportunities of data, analytics, AI and automation in the insurance sector. It's on 28th November at Convene, 133 Houndsditch, London EC3. I'm going to be there. Get 20% off using the code ‘voice' when you sign up Here

As CEO of Ryan Specialty Tim Turner has arguably some of the best visibility of the global insurance market and its stress points of anyone in the industry. The business that Tim has helped to build with founder Pat Ryan is a broad, deep, complex and highly efficient insurance distribution machine, that picks up and serves wherever local markets are unable or unwilling to provide the insurance solutions that its retail brokers' clients around the world need. The firm works with over 20,000 brokers of all sizes and handles more than $25 billion dollars in annual premiums. Ryan Specialty has also been a major consolidator in its segment, executing many large and complex deals on both sides of the Atlantic. In this podcast I was able to quiz Tim on all the trends in the market and he was really open and forthcoming in all his answers. So if you'd like to know where the major friction points and opportunities are, whether the boom in E&S submissions will continue and wonder where ongoing retail broking consolidation and the continuing wave of MGA formations are likely to be leading then listen on. You won't be disappointed. But more importantly you'll be spending time with one of the sector's most successful, experienced and dynamic executives and learning how he thinks about the insurance world and how he intends to make the most of all the many commercial opportunities it is currently affording a business like Ryan Specialty. Tim's also great company and his drive and enthusiasm for our sector is undiminished and I'll wager a listen will put a renewed spring in your step. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com We also thank audio advertiser, The Insurance Network (TIN), organiser of the highly-successful TINtech events series. They are advertising their new London-based event, Data Jam, which is focused on exploring the implications and opportunities of data, analytics, AI and automation in the insurance sector. It's on 28th November at Convene, 133 Houndsditch, London EC3. I'm going to be there. Get 20% off using the code ‘voice' when you sign up Here

This is a great episode with someone whose job encompasses education, engagement and innovation and who has found real purpose and great satisfaction in her current role. Rosie Denée is best known for running the highly successful Lloyd's Lab innovation hub, but her full job title is in fact Head of Innovation, Commercial Education and Engagement at Lloyd's. In this podcast we get to the heart of how to foment innovation in the global specialist insurance and reinsurance market and learn about the characteristics of the top insurtech companies that give them the best chance of success and perhaps more importantly, what traits are most closely associated with failure. We also get a sneak peek at what the next wave of new Insurtech companies are likely to be offering the incumbent market in the coming years. Rosie is the sort of personal who lights up when she starts talking about her job and so I can guarantee that this will be an educational, innovative and highly engaging listen. NOTES: IoT means the Internet of Things – the sea of interconnected devices that make up our world today. LINKS Rosie mentioned Lloyd's Lab alumnae: Gaia https://gaiafamily.com/en-gb and ClearConnect Solutions https://clearconnectsolutions.com/ We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com We also thank audio advertiser, The Insurance Network (TIN), organiser of the highly-successful TINtech events series. They are advertising their new London-based event, Data Jam, which is focused on exploring the implications and opportunities of data, analytics, AI and automation in the insurance sector. It's on 28th November at Convene, 133 Houndsditch, London EC3. I'm going to be there. Get 20% off using the code ‘voice' when you sign up Here

Today's a really enjoyable episode because I am talking to someone of vast insurance market experience who is getting a shot at putting that deep knowledge and acquired wisdom into really useful practice Greg Massey has had an insurance career spanning four decades that culminated as Head of Programs at Zurich North America. On his retirement in 2022 he became an adviser to VIPR to help the company with its US expansion plans. This is a great match because in this role Greg is able bring his experience to bear to introduce US Delegated authority and programme management industry peers to the products and solutions that VIPR has been providing to that same community in the London Market for almost 15 years. Greg is a great professional and this podcast is a masterclass on best practice in the application of technology for solving core operational problems and generating a genuine data-driven edge in this burgeoning market segment. Greg is also excellent company and is incredibly open and generous with his insights. Half an hour with him will fly by and give you a large number of practical ideas you can apply to your own business. LINKS https://www.viprsolutions.com/

Welcome to the third instalment of the podcast where I use the annual Monte Carlo RendezVous to gauge the outlook ahead of the key 1.1 Reinsurance renewals. This year, a lot had changed in the preceding 12 months. 2023 results had been almost universally excellent for all reinsurers and capital had returned to very healthy levels. Colour and confidence were visibly returning to the market. Smiles and receptive ears were in far greater supply than a year previously and the grim mood of two years ago had been almost completely forgotten. The only flies in the ointment were continued emergence of poor back year performance in some US casualty classes and a hesitancy among investors who still seemed more ready to punish any bad news, than reward the good. Whatever had been black and white two years ago was becoming progressively greyer and choice and options over what - and how and in what shape or size reinsurance could be bought - were beginning to open up for cedants. In short this is a market of nuances and one where experienced traders are going to be given an opportunity to shine. So join me as I root them out from either side of the underwriting desk and find out what's going on. My promise to you is that if you weren't lucky enough to be down on the Cote D'Azur in early September, listening to this podcast will be the next best thing to having been there in person, in the rooms, suites, cafés, restaurants and lobbies with me as I interrogate a large number of key industry personnel. Give me the next hour and I'll give you the State of (Re)insurance. NOTES:  GL = General Liability LINKS: We thank our sponsor Stephens Rickard: www.stephensrickard.com  

Todays' Episode is a fast-moving, high-intensity blast from start to finish. That's mostly because of the people I'm talking to, but also due to the circumstances under which we are doing the talking. First the people. Richard Brindle is well known to anyone in our business as one of the most dynamic underwriters in the market. And anyone following the Fidelis story will know that now the business has split into the Fidelis Partnership and the Fidelis Insurance Group, Richard has freed up time to be even more dynamic. It's perhaps understandable that Richard Coulson, The Fidelis Partnership's CEO of Insurance & Deputy Group Chief Underwriting Officer, doesn't yet have the same public profile as his namesake, but on this performance it won't take long for that to start building. Secondly the venue was Monaco at the Monte Carlo RendezVous. The RendezVous always heightens the intensity of any interaction. People come there ready to communicate against the clock and that cut-to-the-chase feel very much comes through in this encounter. As a result this podcast covers everything it should – the state of global markets and where Fidelis is positioning itself to make the most of the opportunities those markets are throwing up, the Fidelis Partnership's entrance to Lloyd's and the two Richard's views on all the major issues of the day. Listening back this is a really enjoyable Episode, packed with singular, original and sometimes surprising insights. NOTES The Fidelis Partnership wanted to add the following points to our discussion about Intellectual Property (IP) insurance: Like others Fidelis exited the IP market earlier this year; Arguably IP is a great example of the bravery of innovation with measured downside and then pulling back quickly as soon as the warning alarms sounded; As a relatively small and well-managed book, there was very little impact on their overall exceptional long-term bespoke underwriting performance.  LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com We also thank audio advertiser, The Insurance Network (TIN), organiser of the highly-successful TINtech events series. They are advertising their new London-based event, Data Jam, which is focused on exploring the implications and opportunities of data, analytics, AI and automation in the insurance sector. It's on 28th November at Convene, 133 Houndsditch, London EC3. I'm going to be there. Find out more and Sign up Here

Beazley is a carrier that is synonymous with expertise in the Cyber insurance line and today we are going to get a masterclass in the Cyber threat and how to deal with it from all angles. We're going to look at how that cyber threat is evolving, and how Cyber criminals are modifying their methods of attack in the face of an increasingly sophisticated line of defence from companies and Government agencies around the world. We'll look at the new threats coming in the age of Artificial Intelligence and - in a world where the CrowdStrike event has reminded us that not all threats necessarily need to be malicious to have a global impact – more mundane problems A decade ago cyber insurers may have partnered with third party service providers, such as threat monitors and security consultants. These days the best cyber insurers are bringing those services in-house and offering a holistic offering to their customers, one where everyone's interests are fully aligned to the best outcomes for all concerned. In this podcast we will see how this is fundamentally changing the traditional relationship between insurers and their customers. You don't have to be a Cyber expert to benefit from a listen to this podcast – indeed, as the Cyber world encroaches more and more on every aspect of our daily lives and companies become aware that Cyber threats directly affect the core of their businesses in all respects, being an avowed techie is less and less important. These days the best CEOs and CFOs are increasingly aware that a Cyber attack could be an existential threat to their company and that this is clearly not a matter to be left to the IT department to handle alone. To help us cover this subject from all possible angles, I have been lucky enough to interview four diverse experts from within the wider Beazley business: They are: Fran Donoso, Chief Technology Officer of Beazley Security, Sydonie Williams, Beazley's Cyber & Tech Focus Group Leader for the rest of the world, Raf Sanchez – Head of Cyber Services at Beazley Security and Cyber Security Consultant, Alex Creswell.    NOTES: I highly recommend you download Beazley's latest Cyber Tech Risk Report. It's called Spotlight On Cyber & Technology Risk 2024 - Resilience in a Game-changing environment  and it makes a perfect accompaniment to this podcast.

Today's guest is in an enviable position – this is because he works for one of the most mature and trusted brands in the global insurance food chain, but is leading the underwriting at a segment of that business that is only just five years old and is still building out and growing fast. Greg Hohman is the Chief Underwriting Officer of Munich Re Specialty Insurance and has a very special vantage point from which to survey the US market. This conversation is full of valuable pointers on where the US P&C market is heading. In it we dissect the Excess and surplus lines (E&S) boom, whether parts of the market are peaking and how much of the shift into this segment is cyclical and how much is permanent. We also delve deep into the shift in distribution with the continued rise of MGAs and hybrid carriers and examine the question of how Artificial Intelligence might best be harnessed in the insurance value chain. But this is also a very well-rounded conversation in which Greg explains how he got into insurance and shares his best career advice. Greg is smart, straightforward and really enjoyable company and time spent with him flies by quickly. So over the next thirty-five minutes you'll learn an awful lot, but I think you'll also make a very knowledgeable new friend in the industry. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com We also thank audio advertiser, The Insurance Network (TIN), organiser of the highly-successful TINtech events series. They are advertising their new London-based event, Data Jam, which is focused on exploring the implications and opportunities of data, analytics, AI and automation in the insurance sector. It's on 28th November at Convene, 133 Houndsditch, London EC3. I'm going to be there. Find out more and Sign up Here

Today's guest is a master of the aviation class of business, but is also a well-known and respected market figure across classes, holding key positions in market committees and international insurance trade bodies and non-insurance organisations alike. Bruce Carman has been a leading aviation and war underwriter since the late 1980s and after over 30 years at the heart of the Lloyd's market, started his own specialist MGA, Hive Underwriters in 2017. That business has grown rapidly and has begun to mature and scale and so now seems an excellent time to get Bruce on the show. The aviation market is in a fascinating position post the Russian invasion of Ukraine and part of our talk will be an incredibly useful listen for any generalist who might feel that aviation is sometimes a specialism too far for them. But that wouldn't be doing justice to Bruce and this discussion. Listening back, what this podcast is really about is examining the art of becoming a good and highly focused underwriter and insurance entrepreneur. Bruce is incredibly good company and is very generous with his time and insights. My overriding impression is of someone having the time of their life. Bruce is someone who has been given the opportunity to start from scratch and be fast-paced and nimble in applying the best practices and technology available today to a lifetime of frontline high-performing underwriting experience.   NOTES Abbreviations: EASA = the European Union Aviation Safety Agency WAIG and BAIG = Respectively the Westminster and British Aviation Insurance Groups – early UK aviation pools. BAIG is a forerunner of today's Global Aerospace. Appointed Rep = Appointed Representative. A UK term where a younger firm gains regulatory (usually FCA) authorisation via an arrangement with a fully-regulated firm. LINKS: Bruce mentioned an Allianz aviation report, which is a highly complementary read to accompany this podcast: Aviation risk, claims and insurance outlook 2024 | Allianz Commercial We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com We also thank new audio advertiser, The Insurance Network (TIN), organiser of the highly-successful TINtech events series. They are advertising their new London-based event, Data Jam, which is focused on exploring the implications and opportunities of data, analytics, AI and automation in the insurance sector. It's on 28th November at Convene, 133 Houndsditch, London EC3. I'm going to be there. Find out more and Sign up Here

I would have to spend some time checking the numbers, but today's guest is the Chief Underwriting Officer who oversees arguably the largest amount of Gross written premium in the world. That's because Rachel Turk is really a Chief, Chief Underwriting Officer who oversees forty to fifty of her peers in the $70 billion dollar Lloyd's market. Whatever the final numbers, her job gives her one of the best vantage points anywhere in global insurance, so learning what she thinks is incredibly useful. Also given the authority she wields, it's incredibly important to know, why she's thinking what she's thinking and how those thoughts might be turned into actions in the Lloyd's market. Given the pivotal importance of the job and the huge diversity within the Lloyd's market, being a strong communicator and being relatively easy to read must be highly desirable qualities in a candidate for a role such as this. Happily Rachel is a brilliantly clear communicator – what you see is what you get. Sometimes interviewing people in very senior, very sensitive jobs like this I have to grapple with cryptic answers or political-style evasion techniques where the difficult questions seem to be there to be avoided. There's absolutely none of that in the interview that follows. Rachel is a blast of new energy with a refreshingly down-to-earth and approachable personality. In this podcast we rattle through a tour of where Rachel sees the Lloyd's portfolio and global insurance and reinsurance markets today and more importantly in what directions she is looking to nudge and steer the market in the future. A listen will give you a really clear idea on where Rachel stands on overall performance, casualty rate adequacy, reinsurance at Lloyd's, captives, innovation, the opportunities for profitable growth and even AI. You'll also come away with a pretty clear idea of what she would be like to deal with. It became clear to me that she's an underwriter's underwriter. Having sat on the other side of the table she really understands the commercial pressures that underwriters face in the real world. But because she has sat in those shoes she can recognise all the ways that even the smartest underwriters might start to repeat the mistakes of the past. I really enjoyed this. I think this is one of the best Episodes of the year so far and can highly recommend a listen. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com  

Today's interviewee is making his fourth appearance on the podcast, which I think makes him my most interviewed guest. But as he is the CEO of Hannover Re, one of the world's largest and most consistently outperforming reinsurers, I'd love to be able to have Jean-Jacques Henchoz on the show even more regularly. That's because very few underwriters have such a global view of the market and the timing is impeccable. A week before the festival of reinsurance that is the Monte Carlo Rendez-Vous is the perfect time to catch up with someone like Jean-Jacques. This time we have an encyclopaedic conversation that somehow manages to encompass the state of the treaty and facultative reinsurance market, Life reinsurance, AI, carbon capture and climate change as well as lessons learned from the recent Baltimore Bridge and CrowdStrike loss events Jean-Jacques is always unassuming but disarming in his directness. In many ways he is the epitome of the adage that in life one should speak softly, but carry a big stick. Happily, with the market in such a strong position, it looks like the stick won't be needed and I find Jean-Jacques in excellent spirits and looking to continue growth and further deepen his partnership with clients. With the reinsurance market at a far more nuanced stage than it has been for the last couple of years, there is a lot of insight packed into the next forty minutes and I can highly recommend a listen. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com

It's the ultimate job of a Broker to make insurance and reinsurance deals happen. You can't make things happen if you're too shy to talk to anyone, or not good at listening.  Once you have listened you then need to be empathetic and understand the nuances and intentions of the parties to a transaction. You also need to be able to make a point eloquently and sometimes forcefully. All the above explains why brokers tend to make such good podcast guests! And today, as our thoughts start to turn towards reinsurance, the autumn conference season and the 1.1 renewals that eventually follow, it's fitting that we have a prominent reinsurance broker on the show. Tim Ronda the CEO of Howden Re is the consummate reinsurance broker and Howden Re is the largest and probably most aggressive challenger reinsurance broker of the pack. However with annual revenues approaching $600mn I wonder if the word Challenger really makes much sense any more and we might soon be simply describing Howden Re as an additional global reinsurance broker, to the three that now exist? This conversation is a great primer for the state of the reinsurance market with a broker who now has the critical mass to get good visibility on large swathes of it. It's also a chance to have an update on the most ambitious reinsurance broking build-out of recent times and check in with where this now maturing project is heading. Tim's a font of knowledge and really good fun to spend time with. I really enjoyed this podcast and I'm sure you will too. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com

I'm really pleased today because after almost four years of trying I have finally managed to get someone from the Arch Capital group of companies onto the show. Arch's appetite to make the most of market opportunity and react quickly to a lack of the same has led to long-term outperformance that speaks for itself. That is perhaps just as well in a business that is really quite media-shy for such a substantial and well-regarded public company. Numbers only tell a small part of the story and that's why I'm delighted to welcome Hugh Sturgess, President and CEO of Arch Insurance International to the show. Hugh's division is a global operation that encompasses everything that Arch does in insurance outside of North America. It stretches from the London market to Bermuda and from the UK regions to Continental Europe and Australia. The business has grown many multiples in the harder market of the last four years and now writes over two billion dollars in premium and employs a thousand people. Hugh has been with Arch for 19 years, so is steeped in the Arch culture and way of doing things. As such this podcast isn't just a guide to the opportunities Arch is seeing in the Specialty insurance markets in London and beyond. It definitely is that – but I think if you listen carefully you can learn a few of the little things that add up to make a business like this outperform over long periods in many different market situations. And Arch may be a little media-shy, but Hugh certainly isn't – this is as fun and lively a conversation as I have had with anyone in a long time. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com

Today's guest is someone who combines well-above-average intelligence with an approachability and a willingness to study and cover risks that many of his peers can't or won't consider. Ryan Mather is CEO of Ariel Re, a business that has positioned itself at the cutting edge of exciting emerging classes such as Green energy and Cyber reinsurance, while the same time maintaining an edge in more traditional lines such as property cat – all within the Lloyd's platform. All this makes him something a breath of fresh air. He is also frank, open and direct but disarmingly charming. These are ingredients that make for an excellent podcast. In this Episode we get to grips with the state of the market from Ariel's point of view. Nothing's off the menu and here we discuss topics as diverse as solar energy, Artificial intelligence, the new Lloyd's and how investors currently view balance-sheet businesses. Ryan's one of those people who make you feel a little bit cleverer every time you meet them. Listen on and see what rubs off onto you. NOTES: An abbreviation slipped through. HMRC (His Majesty's Revenue and Customs) is the UK tax authority. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com

Some podcast interviews are really fulfilling to be involved with. Sometimes it's the rapport I have with the guest and sometimes it's the subject matter and the insights that I find the most satisfying. Today's podcast is a rare combination because it's both of the above. Jeff Radke Co-Founder and CEO at Accelerant Holdings, is clearly on top of the world in this interview. His business is absolutely flying; it's now employing around 375 people and is connecting an amazing 190 MGAs with 12 insurers and 66 reinsurers on both sides of the Atlantic. The organisation wrote just over $1.7billion of premium in 2023. This is about four times the size the business was when we last spoke just over three years ago. Jeff is great fun to be around, but it's the vision and understanding of how the whole structure of large parts of the specialty insurance sector is changing that is what makes this such a good listen. Back in the old days growth at this speed might have been frowned upon, or at least viewed with a certain amount of scepticism. Not now – these days technological change means that the ultimate capital providers can drill right down into as much detail of the risks their capital is supporting as they want and they can asses the quality of their book in almost real time. Jeff has had a career that has given him an incredibly detailed view of the insurance value chain and his vision for how the new ways the constituent parts of that chain are sharing out the value that they create in much more meritocratic ways is fascinating. So If you have been spending time wondering why the MGA boom seems to have continued unabated even with a hard insurance market and a major reset in reinsurance, this is easily the most eloquent and enjoyable explanation you'll hear on the subject. You'll also learn of Accelerant's plans around captives, his thoughts on Lloyd's as well as underwriting classes as diverse as fish drying and credit LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com