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