Tell us how you arrived in the insurance industry, and about your career before IQUW.
My background is unusual in that, after I left school, I decided to pursue my professional golfing ambitions, playing at a high amateur and professional level before transitioning to the insurance world. After sending out hundreds of CVs and self-funding insurance exams, I joined JLT as a technician in their Marine and Energy claims team. I was quickly promoted to a claims broker, managing demanding blue chip international shipping clients over four years.
I then joined Hiscox as a Marine and Energy Claims Adjuster, gaining expertise in energy liability and upstream energy, whilst advancing to senior adjuster and then interim claims manager roles during my time there. I decided to join Canopius after I was approached for a multi-class of business claims manager role with a large team of claims adjusters responsible for the Energy, Marine, Engineering, and Property claims portfolios. After 3 years I was promoted to Deputy Head of Short-Tail Claims, with shared leadership responsibility for 24 people and over 20,000 open claims files across Marine, Cargo, Specie, Energy, Construction, marine & Energy Liability, and Property classes.
I’m now the Head of Marine, Energy and Aviation claims at IQUW, which includes a Cargo and Specie claims portfolio as part of my remit. IQUW are a fast-growing company and are increasing our products in our global Marine, Cargo, & Energy business. The IQUW Marine & Energy liability offering now includes Ports and Terminals, and the underwriters are focussing on expanding the Energy liability part of the account too. The Energy team are growing in terms of the portfolio and recruiting market leading talent. It’s an exciting role and provides an opportunity to align our claims service with the ambitions of the syndicate.
What attracted you to IQUW?
I have always worked for large, established insurance companies, so working for IQUW is a refreshing new challenge. IQUW offers a very different environment and challenge, the opportunity to build out a team and the claims service proposition to support the ambitions of a new and growing syndicate was highly attractive. Another attraction was the high performers that had joined in terms of underwriting and claims talent, including some I knew from my time at Hiscox and Canopius. It made me want to be part of that team and play a part in the IQUW journey. The whole package sounded exciting. IQUW has done some amazing things over the last four years, and I’m really looking forward to help taking it into its next phase from a claims’ perspective.
What, in your opinion, differentiates IQUW’s approach?
The collaborative culture across the organisation, and the fact we are nimble as we are building out and growing. The growth has been very strategic, and the knowledge and experience of the people in their respective areas of the business is second to none. Another part of this is really utilising and optimising data and technology, building value-add initiatives internally, including identification of trends and drawing insights from the data and management information to facilitate great risk analysis, selection, and decision-making. IQUW are leveraging claims and policy data in innovative ways to support this and grow the business efficiently.
Something must be said for the culture as well, it’s incredibly collaborative, and the energy is contagious. Everyone is open and responsive to change and hearing new ideas, and they are constantly looking at how to improve as we expand.
Can you tell me a bit about the marine, energy and aviation team?
The underwriting teams are pushing hard to become a lead market in more of their respective business lines, and my appointment is designed to help us build our claims capability and bring the technical knowledge and experience needed to differentiate us as a true claim’s leader in the market. The whole Marine, Energy, and Aviation division is hugely open and eager for claims insights and technical claims input. In particular, the type of service and value-add that I have had a vast amount of experience in delivering over the past decade in other Lloyds syndicates.
The claims team are including more data and management information and are looking at incorporating and interrogating claims experience metrics to communicate trends and opportunities to the Underwriting teams across the division. The claims team has a breadth and depth of technical ability and experience, and we’re well positioned to match quality service to the leadership plans of the Marine and Energy classes. As we develop out the team and the claims service proposition we can build on this great foundation of technical expertise and continually add-value to the business and our clients through ‘irresistible’ service. We are leveraging claims data and adding meaningful claims insights to the underwriting teams about their portfolios. This activity coupled with the team’s expertise and experience means that IQUW Claims is an integral part of the business meeting its goals.
What are the main trends effecting the claims sector?
I think the beauty of working in Marine, Energy, and Aviation claims is we are never short of trends and issues we need to consider, whether they be linked to trade, supply-chain issues, engineering, technology, or geopolitical tensions, there are lots of varied and interesting issues that can impact the claims sector, and no end of challenges to overcome together with your business partners and clients.
Across first-and third-party claims in my areas of focus we have seen trends arising from, aged assets, novel technologies, series losses, automation, support vessel cost and availability, through to climate change litigation, ESG impacts, nuclear verdicts & settlements, legislation change, increase in sanctions, and claims inflation, to name but a few!
No two issues are alike, and, in some instances, they can have significant impacts on multiple classes of business. This is another area that Marine, Energy, and Aviation claims at IQUW are focused on, and we are constantly scanning the horizon for industry and global issues that will potentially impact our business and clients.
In your new role, what are your main aims and what excites you most about the challenges ahead?
My aim is to deliver exceptional claims service not only to brokers and clients, but also to my colleagues, and the wider business. The goal must be to have a first-class claims service that supports the business growth and attracts brokers and clients to entrust their business with IQUW.
What I’m looking forward to most is building out a data-driven, expert, customer-centric claims team and service proposition, and getting in front of clients with the underwriters to tell them all about it!
Find out more about Claims at IQUW here
