The Voice of Insurance

As an insurance journalist I have always been particularly fond of the mutual sector. That’s because mutuals usually have a strong sense history and, because they often derive from particular industrial activities and distinct geographies, they also tend to have a very clear sense of purpose. The absence of a pure profit motive and the imperative to grow and please investors also brings a greater focus on other metrics such as service and customer satisfaction. All the above I think explains why today’s guest makes for such a strong and insightful interviewee. Ståle Hansen is the President and CEO at Norwegian P&I club Skuld and this podcast will bring you right up to date with the marine insurance world. It is refreshing to speak to someone as client-focussed and straight-talking as Ståle. From the latest on the major Dali-Baltimore Bridge claim to the challenges of dealing with war, AI and marine cyber exposures, as well as the ongoing modernisation, professionalisation and consolidation of the P&I world itself, Ståle is direct and unequivocable. This is one of those interviews that will make you feel good about insurance because Ståle and the P&I world he represents remain absolutely true to our industry’s core virtues of risk-pooling, problem-solving and maintaining a bias towards giving cover rather than excluding it. Ståle is also great company and the time will fly by. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo, now part of Sapiens: https://www.advantagego.com

This podcast is a real treat and that’s all down to today’s guests. They are two of the most successful entrepreneurs of their generation, building MGA CFC into a multi-billion-dollar global business based on consistent organic growth and year-in year-out market-beating underwriting profitability. That’s already good enough to be worthy of your attention, but that alone is not what makes this podcast a must-listen. What makes this interview so compelling is that yes, my two guests have been exceptional practitioners in their own right, but now they are able to sit outside the industry and look inwards from the point of view of expert investors. The icing on the cake is that they are not running a venture capital fund using other peoples’ money: the only funds they are investing are their own. And this means that they can be brutally honest in what they say and how they say it. Dave Walsh and Graeme Newman of Kantara Capital are now in the business of helping the best new businesses in the MGA and broker space realise their potential. So listen on to find out what this exceptional duo have in their sights and what their favourite and least favoured investment theses are. You’re likely to be surprised by some of their strong convictions and then cheered by their infectious enthusiasm, optimism and good humour. If you’ve ever wondered what it takes to make it on your own, listen on: this podcast is an encyclopaedia of great ideas to get you started and is one of the strongest interviews I have recorded in a very long time. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo, now part of Sapiens: https://www.advantagego.com

Today’s podcast is one of the most fast-moving and broad-ranging I have recorded in seven years of the Voice of Insurance. For instance, today’s guest links running an insurer on Native AI infrastructure, Takaful insurance and the application of parametric insurance to almost every peril, with ambitions to grow his own reinsurance balance sheet and a medium-term goal to return to the Lloyd’s market with what he has built. As you will gather Mark Groenheide, the CEO and President of LIRG isn’t built exactly like all the rest of us. Following a classical insurance upbringing, with underwriting stints at the sorts of blue-chip carriers one might expect to see on a standard resumé, Mark’s career has since blossomed to embrace imaginative thinking, change and insurance and reinsurance innovation in myriad forms. Mark’s enthusiasm is infectious and at points I am sure he will have you nodding in agreement with his views about making insurance better as a product and far more relevant to the world and more effective solving its problems than it is today. This is a fascinating discussion with an insurance Renaissance Man that might inspire you to try something new in your own career. So if you’re feeling a bit jaded, I challenge you to listen to this and not feel re-energised and refreshed. My only caveat is to make sure you’ve had your coffee because this is at times a breathless conversation. Listen on and you’ll definitely hear me trying to keep up with Mark as he puts me through my paces. I had a lot of fun and you definitely will too. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo, now part of Sapiens: https://www.advantagego.com

Today’s podcast was recorded down at the Monte Carlo Rendez-Vous at the beginning of September. This extraordinary gathering of global insurance leadership is great place to secure time with senior executives from all around the world. I am really glad and feel very lucky that Richard Brindle, Group CEO and Chairman of The Fidelis Partnership, has managed to find time for the Voice of Insurance in each of the last five consecutive years. This year Richard was joined by another Richard, Richard Coulson, Group President of Strategic Partnerships, who was last on the show in 2024. In Richard Brindle’s own words, since it bifurcated from its insurance balance sheet three years ago The Fidelis Partnership has been moving as if it were on rocket fuel. It was therefore great to catch up again, even if it were only a couple of months since his last appearance on the show with Clive Washbourn of Navium. A couple of years ago the headline of this podcast was taken from a direct quote of Richard Brindle’s – “if you’re good enough, you’re old enough”. My view on podcast guests is that if they’re interesting enough, they can come on the show as often as they like! While we were gathered to talk about reinsurance, in typical fashion the reinsurance items on the agenda were dealt with very swiftly and we were soon opening up topics that I had never broached with either guest before. Two themes that we really delved into were TFP’s strategic decision not to write broker facilities and the firm’s high-growth markets strategy and how this really works in practice. If you don’t write the big brokers’ facilities, how do make sure they keep showing you business? And if you do a lot of business in fast-developing jurisdictions  how much more likely are you to encounter dilemmas, such as those relating to ESG? All the answers and a typically robust and uncompromising discussion are coming right up. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo, now part of Sapiens: https://www.advantagego.com

Today’s guest is an insurance professional who has just completed forty years in the market. Over that time he has built a reputation as the consummate underwriter’s underwriter. But by some strange coincidence our paths hadn’t crossed – until now. We can complain about Monte Carlo all we want but it never fails to throw up wonderful opportunities to meet the most senior and prestigious figures in the global insurance and reinsurance industry. So it was that I finally met Jack Kuhn, President of Westfield Specialty at a meeting table in a conference hall in the bowels of the Fairmont Hotel. At Monte Carlo everyone is in talking mode and so what follows is the classic fast-paced kind of conversation you have ten times a day when down at the Rendez-Vous. But listening back in the cold light of day, it’s Jack’s underwriting leadership qualities that really stand out – even in such a frenetic environment. He is calm and focused and has a clear idea of what he wants to achieve. Like all the best underwriters, he is never dismissive of new ideas, but weighs them carefully and leaves you in no doubt where he stands. Westfield Specialty is in an enviable position, now writing around $2.4bn of gross premium, as part of a mutual group with a 178-year pedigree, it can evaluate and navigate the market on its merits, without pressure to grow. And that’s where this conversation shines. It’s liberating to talk to an underwriter with such a long and successful career, being given the chance to design an underwriting shop that is applying the full benefit of all that experience. Jack is clearly in his element and really enjoying this latest chapter in his career, and this conversation encompasses all the big themes: The challenges of a highly competitive insurance and reinsurance market, emerging automatic digital underwriting and AI as an emerging casualty peril, all have a strong showing, among many other themes. It’s always great to finally meet someone you have heard a lot about, but it can sometimes be a little anticlimactic. I am pleased to report that this meeting exceeded all expectations and my only regret is not having met Jack twenty years earlier. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo, now part of Sapiens: https://www.advantagego.com