The Voice of Insurance

The Voice of Insurance Mark Geoghegan
  • 5.0 (27)
  • BUSINESS
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

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

  1. 4H AGO

    Ep302 Nick Hankin QBE Re: Avoiding surprises

    Today’s guest is running a global reinsurer with bold ambitions to double in size over the next five years. Nick Hankin is Managing Director of QBE Re. Now into his fourth decade in insurance and reinsurance, Nick has market experience in abundance, so when, despite the recent relatively rapid softening in the reinsurance market at the most recent renewals, he says still sees plenty of opportunity for profitable growth, we should sit up and take notice. This is a podcast full of purpose and positivity. Nick has a clear plan that he wants to execute and makes a convincing case that his ambitions are eminently achievable. On the way we cover all the major issues of the day including the insurance and reinsurance opportunities arising from the data centre boom, the best use-cases for AI as well as the emergence of AI as a new casualty peril in its own right. Nick is good company and a great communicator with a clear vision. The next half an hour will fly by. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo, now part of Sapiens: https://www.advantagego.com

    34 min

  2. MAY 12

    Ep301 Alfonso Valera: Everyone is chasing growth

    I first met today’s guest just under 34 years ago on my first day at work in the London Market. Back then Alfonso Valera and I worked in the London-based Lloyd’s subsidiary of the biggest broker in Spain. Alfonso was my senior and had already been in post for a year and patiently helped show me the ropes. He spoke perfect English, was a confident, skilful and forceful negotiator who was incredibly passionate about the insurance business and was always fun, direct and easy to deal with. He was mature beyond his years and was a natural leader. It seemed obvious to anyone who knew him back then that he was destined for great things. That broking business was taken over by Aon in the late nineties. Alfonso stayed on and over 25 years later he is now CEO of International at Aon Reinsurance Solutions. International covers the whole of the Rest of the World other than the Americas, and Aon is the largest reinsurance broker by revenues, so however you measure it Alfonso has one of the biggest jobs in global reinsurance. His job titles and seniority might have changed since we first met, but I can guarantee that he is exactly the same person I knew when I was fresh out of University.   He is still disarmingly direct and straightforward and he is still passionate about the business, but now he is speaking from a vantage point that few in the global insurance market can reach. Alfonso is still great fun to talk to and this conversation took on a life of its own. Whether it’s the state of the market and changes in buyer and seller appetites, facilitisation in reinsurance, the prospects for M&A, the MGA phenomenon, enhanced competition between reinsurance intermediaries or the changes that AI is likely to bring, Alfonso gives me a straight answer every time and we barely pause for breath. Catching up with Alfonso was a joy from start to finish. Listen on and you’ll be bound to agree. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo, now part of Sapiens: https://www.advantagego.com

    41 min

  3. MAY 5

    Ep300 Patrick Tiernan CEO Lloyd's: "Why Not Lloyd's?"

    Patrick Tiernan has come into the CEO role at Lloyd’s with the market brimming with confidence after a third successive year of strong profitability. Now that competitive forces are reasserting themselves with renewed vigour, the question is what next? From this meeting the future at Lloyd’s is one full of increased velocity and innovation in all things. New leadership, new forms of underwriting, new targets and ambition, new risks, new ways to transact business, new skills and attitudes from the people who work in the market and new capital structures to bear the financial load. Recorded live in the centre of the Underwriting room by the Rostrum on a busy working day this is an energetic encounter from start to finish. If you want to get a clear feel for the charismatic new Lloyd’s CEO’s strategy and modus operandi, this will get you up to speed in no time. Patrick is easy to talk to and is disarmingly frank. From my experiences of doorstepping him whenever I have had the chance over the past five years, I can promise you that we would have had the same conversation whether or not the microphones had been turned on. What you see is what you get. So listen on for an audio roadmap for the market of the next five years and beyond. NOTES: The Sean Patrick Refers to is of course Sean McGovern, Lloyds Council member, CEO of UK and Lloyd’s at AXA XL and current Chair of the LMA. ICX and TCX are respectively the special Innovation and Energy Transition risk codes used to account for novel premium transacted in the Lloyd’s market. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo, now part of Sapiens: https://www.advantagego.com

    56 min

  4. APR 28

    Ep299 Dan Topping CEO B.P. Marsh: Small begets Big, Big begets Small

    The great cliché about our sector is that while business trends come and go – it’s the people who remain the constant. Today’s guest is someone whose business follows this philosophy to the letter. Dan Topping is the CEO of London-focused, publicly-listed private equity firm B.P. Marsh with just under 20 years in the business. The firm he leads is a household name in the London Market with a 30-year often idiosyncratic pedigree backing entrepreneurs in the intermediary segment. Countless brokers and MGAs, including Howden and Nexus have benefitted from the investment and counsel from this singular institution. Given the highly-focused nature of what B.P. Marsh does, Dan and his colleagues will have seen almost every early-stage investment opportunity in the London market of the last 20 years. That gives a kaleidoscopic perspective and that knowledge and understanding seeps through every pore of Dan’s being. The prime job of a podcast like this is to help tease out specialist knowledge accumulated in the market and share it with you the listener. I have known Dan for almost all of his time at the firm and that made this interview really relaxed and much more revealing than most. If there ever were any trade secrets about what has driven the compound growth of this impressive highly-focused business, they won’t be secrets after this podcast. If you want to know what makes entrepreneurialism in the specialty insurance sector tick, this is the place to come. Together we’ll examine some of the surprising trends Dan is seeing in what many would view as an ultra-consolidated intermediary segment. Dan is as eloquent and relaxed as he is knowledgeable and the time will fly by. And perhaps you too will be inspired and emboldened to dare strike out on your own entrepreneurial journey. Clichés come about because by and large they are expressing an underlying universal truth. A quick listen and I think you’ll agree that Dan is living proof that it really is the people that make the market what it is. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo, now part of Sapiens: https://www.advantagego.com

    39 min

  5. APR 21

    Ep298 Tessa Wardle QBE Portfolio Solutions: Indexing the Market

    The growth of the portfolio solutions segment of the market has been one of the most exciting and interesting developments in global insurance in the past five years. The streamlining of placements in syndicated insurance markets is producing scale, speed efficiency and cost benefits for underwriters, brokers and their clients alike. And this is a phenomenon that is really only just getting into its stride. Billions of dollars of premium are now being transacted this way as brokers look to facilitise significant percentages of their placements while consortia and other underwriting pooling arrangements proliferate. As Director of QBE Portfolio Solutions, Tessa Wardle runs one of the lead markets for this pioneering form of delegated authority underwriting and collectively her small team underwrite on a scale that in premium terms is many multiples of that achieved by conventional market underwriters. In this podcast we look at where this phenomenon is likely to be heading, as well as delving into the core mechanics of just how business of such a high volume is transacted in practice. What are the core skills of a portfolio solutions underwriter and how do they differ from conventional underwriting practice? And what are the principle levers and controls that senior executives like Tessa have at their disposal to keep these huge contracts on track? It’s a fascinating world that is in many ways revolutionary, but in many others reassuringly familiar. Tessa is an excellent guest and one of the best qualified people to guide us through this huge change in global insurance business flows and give us an idea of where the trend will be heading as it matures. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo, now part of Sapiens: https://www.advantagego.com

    33 min

  6. APR 14

    Ep297 Scott Egan CEO SiriusPoint: If you fall asleep, you go backwards

    Todays’ podcast with Scott Egan is a tour de force. I think there are various reasons for that. The first is that whereas when we first spoke in 2023, Scott was relatively new in the CEO role at SiriusPoint and his strategy hadn’t had time to bed in and take full effect, now we were speaking after a year when the business had posted another set of consistently strong results and any talk of a turnaround was clearly a question belonging to the past. Secondly this was now the third time that Scott has been on the podcast and his confidence and comfort in doing this kind of thing has grown, but third and most importantly - this is a podcast that is completely forward-looking and optimistic in tone. Because SiriusPoint has rebuilt credibility and has demonstrated an ability to grow profitably it now has more strategic options at its disposal than it did three years ago. What makes this such an engaging interview is the chance it provides to examine those strategic choices, particularly now that the market environment is becoming more challenging and competitive. Listening back it is Scott’s confidence and clarity of purpose that shine through in this encounter and that’s why I can highly recommend a listen for anyone looking for a route map though this transitioning market. NOTES: I let one acronym through. PYD is Prior-Year Development. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo, now part of Sapiens: https://www.advantagego.com

    46 min

  7. APR 7

    Ep296 Ivan Gonzalez CEO Swiss Re Corporate Solutions: Our strategic priority is to lead

    Today’s guest is the CEO of an $8bn GWP global insurance business. Ivan Gonzalez has spent 25 years travelling the world within the Swiss Re organisation, from his native Colombia to New York and China. He now runs Swiss Re Corporate Solutions. After undergoing a turnaround process a few years ago this is an organisation that has regained its strategic direction and confidence and is now posting combined ratios in the 80s. So it is from a position of strategic strength that this conversation developed. Ivan is an excellent guest because his passion for the role shines through and won’t allow him to mince his words. He is demonstrative and you quickly understand where he stands on any given issue. Given Swiss Re Corporate Solutions’ global capabilities and market relevance, that means we could have long and very detailed discussions on all the key market issues of the day. As such, the Corporate Solutions strategy, the opportunities arising from the global data centre boom, the application of AI in insurance and AI as a newly emerging peril, as well as the growth in MGAs all get the same unambiguous treatment. Ivan is a strong and charismatic leader who is fun to talk to. He is a dream guest and this makes for a highly recommended listen for anyone looking for clues on how to navigate a global market now clearly entering a softening phase. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo, now part of Sapiens: https://www.advantagego.com

    45 min

  8. MAR 31

    Ep295 Richard Milner CEO Chaucer Group: Let's do what we're good at

    Today’s guest is Richard Milner, CEO of Chaucer Group. Chaucer is a global specialty insurance and reinsurance institution with a great pedigree and significant scale, both inside and outside the Lloyd’s market. Richard is coming up for two years in post as CEO and is beginning to make his mark on the business’s long-term strategy. Richard has had the sort of underwriting career that makes him a very relatable guest. He worked his way up from photocopying slips at a Lloyd’s box to travelling the insurance world. Now he’s in senior management he’s easy to talk to because he’s still unambiguously an underwriter to his core. As a result this interview is really down-to-earth and practical in focus. In it Richard lays out his five-year plan for Chaucer and we dissect the issues of the day in great detail and variety, ranging from how rates and business flows are holding up in a more competitive market, to an assessment of AI as a new emerging peril and potential new line of business. Richard is great company and I can highly recommend a listen. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com

    31 min
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5
out of 5
27 Ratings

About

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

Information

  • Creator
    The Voice of Insurance Mark Geoghegan
  • Years Active
    2019 - 2026
  • Episodes
    361
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2020-23 All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    The Voice of Insurance

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