RISING STARS
Racehorses, spacecraft, and Ronaldo’s right foot: why young talent love insurance
Insurtech, new risks and the growing involvement of the capital markets are all making the re/insurance industry more attractive to young people—and they look increasingly important to its future. Intelligent Insurer interviewed a number of young executives who are tipped by their employers for success within the sector.
The re/insurance industry has not traditionally been associated with innovation and cutting-edge practices and that has hurt its ability to attract talent over the years—but that is changing.
A heady combination of new technologies, increasingly sophisticated cat and alternative capital are creating an industry deemed far more dynamic by younger people.
Yes, some of these are Millennials with very different outlooks and ambitions from previous generations. But as technology blurs the lines between sectors and disrupts sales channels and other aspects of the industry including the line between re/insurance and the capital markets continue to blend, firms able to get the most from their younger executives may be those that not only survive but thrive.
In recognition of the importance of this new wave of talent, we looked to profile some of the younger talent in the industry. Edited profiles of this year’s Rising Stars can be found below.
We asked them why and how they ended up in this sector and what their hopes and aspirations are now. Their answers make interesting reading.
Getting in is the first step
Richard Rudden, senior underwriter, energy, SiriusPoint, is perhaps typical of many who had a connection in the industry already—in his case, his dad. That gave him an early interest in the industry, which translated into a career.
“Once I was in, I was fascinated by it,” Rudden says. “The diversity and range of clients, activities and territories attracted me to energy as well as the complexities which surround the line, how exposure accumulates and the managing of a portfolio. It is a truly cradle to grave product which is in place from the moment of seismic activity.”
He is also very positive on the opportunities available in the sector. “I don’t know if there is another industry where people are so willing to take you under their wing and help you succeed. Forming and developing relationships is very important, as is never shying away from an opportunity,” he says.
“Firms able to get the most from their younger executives may be those that not only survive but thrive.”
In contrast, Martin Thomas, head of underwriting management, Probitas Syndicate 1492, had very little to no knowledge of the insurance industry prior to joining it. But he quickly found his feet.
“The blend of technical and business-savvy roles creates an interesting market dynamic and provides opportunities to a wide range of young professionals with divergent skillsets and backgrounds,” he says.
“This is a fact not commonly known to people outside the market (or without family connections with insurance experience). Insurance is about risk, and risk is everywhere, whether you are looking at racehorses, spacecraft, or Cristiano Ronaldo’s right foot. It is easier than you think to transform prior experience or personal interest into an insurance career.”
Jo Stainer, business development associate, TigerRisk Partners, has a different view again. As a geography graduate, she has always had an interest in flood modelling and analytics, so insurance and catastrophe modelling were in many ways a natural fit—“I just didn’t realise the job existed at the time!” she says.
“If I had known about the cat modelling and analytics part of the industry sooner, I would have actively sought it out as a career. I do think that part of the beauty of the insurance industry is learning about different parts and discovering what’s right for you.”
Stainer adds that she was attracted to the fact that re/insurance plays a hugely positive social role in helping people and communities to recover when natural catastrophes and other disasters occur.
And, she suggests, its positive nature should be taught to young people. “I would suggest engaging with new talent—not just in universities, but in schools too. For example, I am part of a Lloyd’s mentoring scheme where I mentor a sixth form student in a school in Tower Hamlets in London,” she says.
“After spending six months talking to my mentee about my work experience, she was immediately engaged and curious about opportunities with the insurance industry. That may not be the case for every young person, but it was an immediate way of engaging with young people and putting the insurance sector on the radar.”
Everyone joins the industry for different reasons and with different aspirations. To discover what drives this new generation of talent in insurance, read on.
Peter Clarke
Managing director
Insurercore
“Years of experience is seen as being more valuable than ability.”
I started in insurance at the age of 16, working in the school holidays for a small managing general agent in my home town. On completing my degree, I then started as an underwriting assistant in the London Market supporting an accident & health team before moving company to become an assistant underwriter in a construction & engineering team.
My roles and responsibilities allowed me to spend a lot of time shadowing the senior underwriters, who all helped to educate me about the nuances of the insurance industry. In 2016, I launched Insurercore—a digital platform that links and connects insurance industry participants based on risk appetite and capacity.
Tell us about your role now and how you got there
As much as I enjoyed my underwriting roles and the people I worked with, I found myself constantly frustrated by the outdated methods the market used. In addition, I found the lack of technology being used in everyday tasks staggering—simple tasks were unnecessarily long-winded and inefficient.
I faced a choice of continuing my career as an underwriter or branching off by myself to address what I felt was a need to bring industry networking into the 21st century. I chose the latter. I created a platform specifically to allow insurance professionals to connect and communicate online according to their risks, risk appetite and capacity needs.
I founded my company five years ago at the age of 26. The insurance industry has taught me the importance of relationships and connections—not only do good working relationships make your job more enjoyable, but the professional connections you make will also help to further your career.
Having already benefited greatly in my career from my own personal connections and having witnessed time and again the value of knowing who to talk to get business done in the insurance market, I felt the time was right to launch my own venture.
There was a gap in the market to modernise and democratise the ease with which people could identify and communicate with the relevant folk in the market. Insurercore was designed to bring underwriters and brokers closer together in a professional networking platform designed around them. You no longer need to spend 30 years wearing down shoe leather and keeping a little black book of contacts to be able to navigate the market, find the best capacity and connect with peers.
Why did you choose to go into the re/insurance industry?
Having worked in insurance during my school holidays I had a basic knowledge of the market when leaving university. Added to this my dad, brother, cousin and a couple of friends were already working in the London Market and they helped me get work experience straight out of university that subsequently led to my being hired. I say it was less of a choice and more of an inevitability.
Do you think the industry is attractive to young professionals?
Overall the market provides such a wide variety of roles across the whole spectrum of classes of business, which means anybody can find an area that is of interest to them.
That said, the current practices in the market could be seen as a deterrent to a generation who have been born with a phone in their hands.
The practice of using rubber stamps is no longer quaint—it’s antiquated and the “techies” who other industries are fighting over are avoiding insurance due to its slow meandering approach to change and adoption.
Do you think the re/insurance industry offers good opportunities and career development to young professionals?
There are fantastic opportunities in insurance for young professionals but I believe that individuals are increasingly having to take on the challenge of personal development themselves. Companies are not doing enough to ensure that their staff have adequate training.
There is a theme, in the London Market in particular, where years of experience is seen as being more valuable than ability, with companies preferring to hire established talent rather than try to develop it internally themselves.
Ashley Cliff
Assistant underwriter–D&O insurance
International General Insurance (IGI)
“The industry needs to link company culture to career development in order to stay relevant.”
I have been in the industry for three years—my first foray into insurance was spent as a broker in the Middle East as part of a sandwich year at university. During that time, I made relationships in the industry and joined IGI after university as an underwriting assistant in 2019.
Tell us about your role now and how you got there
My role is assistant underwriter D&O at IGI, where I support in underwriting and managing a portfolio of international management liability, mainly comprising D&O liability and public offering of securities insurance (POSI).
My role involves review and assessing of underwriting information, conducting due diligence on potential insureds, establishing a fair premium for the risk via our brokers and providing appropriate policy terms and conditions. I also actively monitor our exposure to the ever-changing world of litigation while making sure the coverage offered meets the needs of the insured.
Compared to my peers, I knew I wanted to work in the insurance market—I’d had a taste of broking in Dubai while at university but thought I would be better suited to underwriting in the London specialty market.
Having a career plan in place before leaving university was a bonus, but the fact that I picked the insurance sector was because I had experienced the market and had family who worked in the industry. I remember accompanying my friends to career fairs and there was a noticeable absence of insurance companies. That needs to change.
Why did you choose to go into the re/insurance industry?
A family member works in the industry, and I knew he enjoyed his work—he recommended that I consider working in the London insurance market.
I have found it to be an enjoyable and interesting industry. There is no “typical” day for a person working in insurance. Whether it is a new client or business risk, each day will bring its own challenges for you to solve. It can be frantic and fast-paced, with multiple tasks happening at the same time—all elements that I enjoy and which keep me motivated.
Do you think the industry is attractive to young professionals?
The barriers to entry can be high. From my perspective, there are only two main routes into the industry. The first is via work experience after leaving school, but these opportunities are slim and getting the work experience in the first place can be difficult if you don’t know someone in the industry.
The second main route into the insurance industry for younger people is to be accepted on to a graduate programme from university. The problem here is that the requirements for entry to a graduate scheme are high: in the UK, you need a strong degree from one of the country’s top universities even to be considered.
The result is that insurance companies are picking from a small mix of people and missing out on other larger pools of important talent. The reality is there are jobs for people with a variety of skills, from underwriter, broker, claims adjuster, accountant, computer engineer and data scientist.
On one hand, the industry is saying it needs to address the challenge of attracting new talent into the industry, but then it implements high barriers to entry and a very selective benchmark. This can be off-putting for some people considering career options at a younger age.
Do you think the re/insurance industry offers good opportunities and career development to young professionals?
Yes—once you are in the industry, young professionals are able to exercise their entrepreneurial attitude in jobs that require creative thinking, problem-solving and a desire to help others.
The issue is attracting the talent in the first place. Unfortunately, the industry struggles with an unappealing reputation and when most people think of jobs in insurance, they think of call centres or relate back to a bad personal experience with a claim.
Or worse—they consider it to be a boring place to work. The industry needs to work hard to address this stigma. This can be addressed by modernising elements of the industry and making insurance more understandable and accessible—for example, via apps and better technology.
It also needs to be said that the generation of people coming into the industry now value company culture more than any other generation that’s come before then. Although the concept of “company culture” has been around for years, only recently has it started to become a priority for workers.
Now, the industry needs to link company culture to career development in order to stay relevant. Most companies will claim to have a company culture—statements on their mission, vision and values. But the younger generation will quickly work out if the work culture doesn’t match the promise.
Michael Ducker
Life & health underwriting R&D analyst
Swiss Re
“I’ve been fascinated by the way our industry encapsulates such a diverse range of specialist areas.”
Tell us about your role now and how you got there
My current role is a diverse one, which is one of the many reasons I enjoy working in this field. It spans a variety of areas, including research and analytics around some of the key factors that underpin life and health (L&H) underwriting, but also has a close link with the communications side to bring this research to life through a variety of platforms, including publications and presentations.
I started out in 2018 as an intern within the global L&H underwriting team during a summer placement in my university days, before taking up a full-time position post-graduation as an associate.
When I started out with the team full time in 2020, we were in a transition phase as we were refocusing our efforts on the R&D side of underwriting, which gave me an opportunity to work with the team in shaping our research pipeline.
As we moved forward with this work, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to progress into the role of analyst, which gave me further opportunities to expand my passion for problem-solving and driving research within the team.
Why did you choose to go into the re/insurance industry?
I always knew I wanted to pursue a career in the financial sector from the fast-paced and diverse working environment that it brings, but I’ve also had a passion for biology from a very young age, and I thought it would be difficult to find a career path that incorporates both.
However, when I heard about L&H reinsurance, I saw an opportunity to bring these two vastly different fields together, and from then on I’ve been fascinated by the way our industry encapsulates such a diverse range of specialist areas, and wanted to understand more about the intricate web of connections that exist across re/insurance.
Do you think the industry is attractive to young professionals?
Once people understand the implications of the re/insurance industry and the diverse range of roles it has to offer, then it is certainly attractive to young professionals as it asks for a variety of skills that many young people enjoy developing: problem-solving, agility and teamwork, to name just a few.
The key part here is ‘once people understand’—for me, when I was at university I was made aware of banking and accountancy opportunities long before I heard about the insurance industry, so making young people aware of the great career paths on offer through the insurance industry is key to generating the excitement and engagement moving forward.
Do you think the re/insurance industry offers good opportunities and career development to young professionals?
Yes, for two key reasons. First, the nature of the work: it’s fast-paced, it’s exciting and you have an opportunity to be involved in shaping a rapidly evolving industry, so naturally there are a number of areas to get involved in that promote career development.
Second, the people: everyone I’ve met both within Swiss Re and across the industry is always extremely supportive of young professionals joining the insurance space and they place a heavy emphasis on nurturing their development. I’ve been overwhelmed with the level of support that I’ve received since joining the industry, and all other young professionals I meet feel the same.
Anna Kosielska
Associate vice president–solutioning
Xceedance
“Traditional insurance business models are fast evolving to meet the demands of the new-age, digitally-savvy policyholder.”
Tell us about your role now and how you got there
I started my insurance career as a catastrophe modeller in Poland, a country where awareness about insurance is limited to life and motor policies. Catastrophe modelling was not a well-known discipline, so I faced multiple challenges during my career trajectory.
As I attained more responsibilities in my roles, one significant challenge was building robust teams that can deliver beneficial outcomes for insurance organisations. It was difficult to find talent with the right experience since catastrophe modelling practitioners in Poland were exceedingly rare.
Everyone who joined our team had to be extensively trained in the basics, influencing process flows and raising the risk of underperformance in the services my team and I delivered. Clearly, the only solution was to automate low-value tasks to boost accuracy and productivity, but a solid grasp of programming languages was required. I invested in honing my programming skills and collaborated with teams working on automating processes across the insurance lifecycle.
This phase of my career helped me gain valuable insights into the complex insurance landscape and leading-edge technology in support of business operations.
In 2018, I joined Xceedance with a significantly expanded role to combine my cat modelling and software development skills. This year, I took on a new role in the global solutioning team at Xceedance with the responsibilities to apply technical/programming skills and insurance domain knowledge to build digital-first solutions, solve multi-layered business challenges, and accelerate transformation initiatives for insurer clients.
My time at Xceedance has been exciting and fulfilling largely because our team and I can drive success for clients—by consolidating and calibrating a constructive mix of technology-enabled insurance capabilities to support insurer operations.
Why did you choose to go into the re/insurance industry?
When I was pursuing a second master’s degree, I sought an interesting and unique dissertation thesis in the Polish context. During my research, I came across a wealth of information on catastrophe modelling and its widespread impact on communities and businesses served by the insurance industry.
I gained an appreciation for the benefits of commercial insurance and the critical workflows involved in risk assessment, exposure management, and policy and claims lifecycles, which combine to deliver policyholder protection and value. The more information I absorbed about insurance functions and catastrophe modelling, the more I realised there was much more to learn.
Simultaneously, the abundance of opportunities in insurance that matched my interests and skillset attracted me to the industry.
During the work on my dissertation, I decided I didn’t want to pursue the academic aspects of catastrophe modelling. I wanted to learn about it and appreciate real-world challenges, put my recently acquired knowledge into action, and centre my career around this sophisticated practice of evaluating and managing natural catastrophe risk.
With this goal in mind, I joined Catlin in 2016 and became part of a talented group of catastrophe modellers—the first of its kind in Poland.
Do you think the industry is attractive to young professionals?
The industry offers vast opportunities to young professionals across the front-, middle-, and back-office functions of insurance operations. Many of those opportunities are technology-focused, require data-management aptitude, and reward entrepreneurial and analytic acumen—comparable to what’s considered to be exciting careers with technology startups and edgy brands.
The nuances of this very complex business, the rapid pace at which it is transforming, the enthusiasm for and practical deployment of intelligent technologies, and the purpose and impact of insurance in society are among the reasons young professionals should look into career growth in the industry.
Traditional insurance business models are fast evolving to meet the demands of the new-age, digitally savvy policyholder and there is a definite need for fresh talent to further accelerate innovation and digitisation. I believe the industry will continue to evolve quickly, and it will emerge as a digital paradigm, in part because a younger generation of professionals will drive and sustain the momentum for meaningful transformation.
Do you think the re/insurance industry offers good opportunities and career development to young professionals?
Learning and career opportunities in this sector are extensive. From product development, underwriting, actuarial and catastrophe modelling skills to policy service, claims, and finance proficiencies and many overarching competencies such as data management and process engineering, the insurance industry has a lot to offer for young, agile professionals with diverse skillsets.
With the proliferation of next-generation technologies, there is an abundance of industry roles centred around advanced analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence, robotic process automation, the internet of things, and more. Moreover, there are dedicated organisations, such as The Institutes, committed to imparting knowledge and certifying individuals in the risk management and property/casualty or life insurance domains.
The global insurance markets are generally stable, people-oriented, and offer a good work-life balance, which is important for most young professionals. We all know people who started their careers in insurance and stayed on for many years or until retirement. To me, this is an indication of an industry with a strong identity, mission, and purpose—an advantageous career proposition for the younger generation.
Sofia Kyriakopoulou
Head of Swiss Re Institute InfoTech
Swiss Re
“We are lucky to enjoy an environment of high-calibre individuals, with very diverse backgrounds.”
Tell us about your role now and how you got there
My mission is to build up the technology function of Swiss Re Institute, in order to support the group chief underwriter in transforming Swiss Re underwriting into a data-led organisation. Data and analytics capabilities are at the centre of this transformation, geared to allow Swiss Re to exploit its data assets to the maximum.
My career so far has been in data and analytics, scaling up such capabilities lately for asset management and previously setting them up in other large financial institutions including Credit Suisse, UBS, and Vontobel Asset Management.
I joined Swiss Re in 2018 as head of smart analytics asset management and my new role will rely on transferring these experiences from the assets side of the balance sheet to this fresh (for me) domain of underwriting, that lies at the heart of the organisation.
Why did you choose to go into the re/insurance industry?
My path in financial services eventually led me to re/insurance and I do not regret this for a bit. As a computer scientist, I started my career in banking attracted by the core role of technology for the business. Soon I discovered the fast-moving area of analytics, where leading capabilities constitute a clear business edge, particularly in capital markets.
While the banks progressed a lot in the tech space, I realise that the insurance space was slower to catchup. My joining re/insurance from its investment management arm did not feel a big transition but did expose me to the re/insurance world.
I am fascinated by the deep expertise that comes into play for risk selection and how latest data and analytics advances can overhaul the capabilities of our experts and give Swiss Re, as a re/insurance giant, a sustainable edge.
Do you think the industry is attractive to young professionals?
This is one of the industries that one needs to be exposed to in order to grasp its attractiveness, for instance through networking, career days, academic projects or internships. In Switzerland the situation is a bit special, as the large re/insurance companies enjoy strong brand recognition and have close ties with the Swiss universities.
Swiss Re is known as an excellent employer, but ultimately few young professionals really know what its business is. Luckily when we explain to them, more often than not, we see their eyes sparkling with curiosity.
Do you think the re/insurance industry offers good opportunities and career development to young professionals?
For a curious, aspiring, young professional I feel re/insurance is an excellent place. We are lucky to enjoy an environment of high-calibre individuals, with very diverse backgrounds, where collaboration instead of individualism are success elements.
There are many opportunities to learn and grow, develop cutting-edge skills and further get ownership and progression, if that’s what one strives for. Particularly in times of such buzz around latest advances in AI, in Swiss Re one gets to feel the art of the possible on data and analytics, and what it takes for this hype to become a reality and transform our business.
Richard Rudden
Senior underwriter, energy
SiriusPoint
“Not only is it fascinating as a career, but it’s also a great place to work.”
Having undertaken a number of work experience roles within insurance I found I enjoyed the buzz around the industry, particularly in the City of London as a global re/insurance hub. While at university I applied for insurance graduate trainee schemes and accepted a job offer from Aspen. As I rotated through different departments at Aspen I joined the energy team where I stayed for seven years, working my way up to the head of international upstream energy through ‘a mixture of circumstance and hard work’.
Three years ago I moved to head the energy team at Sirius International, where my team set up the company’s direct energy insurance operation in London. Earlier this year Third Point Re merged with Sirius International to form the new entity SiriusPoint.
Tell us about your role now and how you got there
I head the upstream energy department at SiriusPoint which encompasses both the physical damage and third party liability offerings. We deal with an array of different energy companies ranging from Mom and Pop operations through to multinational conglomerates. Operations can be onshore and offshore and coverages include physical loss or damage, control of well, construction and third party liability.
Although oil and gas is the focus at the moment, renewables is becoming an increasingly prominent element of the portfolio. As I moved through my rotations at Aspen which included kidnap and ransom, UK commercial insurance lines and internal audit I knew by the end of my first week in energy that I wanted to join the team. As luck would have it a space became available and I haven’t looked back.
Why did you choose to go into the re/insurance industry?
Like many people who join I had a connection—my dad worked in insurance for 40 years. Once I was in, I was fascinated by it. The diversity and range of clients, activities and territories attracted me to energy as well as the complexities which surround the line, how exposure accumulates and the managing of a portfolio.
It is a truly cradle to grave product which is in place from the moment seismic activity is taking place, to the drilling operations and then construction, production lifecycle and now, increasingly, decommissioning.
I was also drawn to the relevance of the line in our day-to-day lives and the need to stay in tune with geopolitics and global economic conditions. The scale and technological feats involved are mind-blowing, and the efforts currently going into reducing carbon emissions towards neutrality and the production of cleaner energy will mean the line is around for years to come, albeit probably in a different guise.
Do you think the industry is attractive to young professionals?
Yes. Insurance is witnessing a rate of change the market has arguably never seen. A bridge is being built between a knowledge and understanding accumulated over more than three centuries and the technological advancements which offer not just potential efficiencies in day-to-day processes but also the capital deployed.
Young professionals looking to get into the industry now will, in effect, be tasked with closing that chasm between the past and the present and laying foundations for generations to come. It’s a very exciting time to be involved.
Insurance also reflects the world we live in. Climate change, for example, is on everyone’s mind—from the man in the street to CEOs of large corporates. This will change the energy market and as we insure that market, our products will have to evolve.
The insurance market continues to be a bit of an unknown to school leavers and university graduates. We should do more to generate positive messaging and let people know about it. Not only is it fascinating as a career, but it’s also a great place to work—it has a family feel.
Relationships are very important, and you have to manage them, and work out which ones matter most. I have been very fortunate to work with some fantastic people who are very talented as well as meeting some extremely colourful characters. A good team beside you makes life much easier.
Do you think the re/insurance industry offers good opportunities and career development to young professionals?
I do. Working hard and learning your trade are a given to be successful. But, like all careers, being in the right place at the right time is very important as well. There are also ample opportunities to find mentors in the insurance market—I don’t know if there is another industry where people are so willing to take you under their wing and help you succeed.
As I said, forming and developing relationships is very important, as is never shying away from an opportunity.
Jo Stainer
Business development associate
TigerRisk Partners
“The job you have in five to 10 years’ time might not exist today, which is an exciting prospect.”
I studied geography at university, then I joined the graduate scheme at Aon 10 years ago. From there, I joined cat modelling firm RMS where I learned a huge amount about modelling and technology, as well as building lots of relationships across the industry.
I then joined Lloyd’s of London in the exposure management team, where I was responsible for the oversight of exposure management for a group of Lloyd’s syndicates. I learned a lot about exposure management practices across the market and about how the Lloyd’s market operates.
I joined TigerRisk six months ago which presented the perfect opportunity for me to progress my career across technology and analytics and contribute to a growing solution and company.
Tell us about your role now and how you got there
I work for TigerRisk, a risk, capital and strategic advisory to the global insurance and reinsurance industries—my role is with TigerEye, which is a propriety software risk management solution that we offer to the market, which aids clients in pricing and portfolio management of property cat business. My job is in business development, sharing this product to new clients while also ensuring support for our existing clients.
I joined TigerRisk and the TigerEye team to progress my career in reinsurance and cat analytics and to work with talented and motivated people. Being part of the TigerEye team presents a unique opportunity to grow and develop TigerEye as a solution and to collaborate with colleagues across TigerRisk to help drive the overall success of the company too.
My path to TigerRisk has been a varied one. Approaching graduation, I didn’t find a clear path into insurance, but rather, like many, stumbled upon it. At university I felt there was a lot of emphasis on certain financial services careers such as consulting and banking. Many of my peers pursued careers in these fields but that wasn’t for me, so I decided to do some research myself and discovered insurance.
I joined the graduate scheme at Aon, a route that I would always recommend. It gave a great insight into the whole industry and invaluable experience in lots of different areas within the sector.
Why did you choose to go into the re/insurance industry?
As a geography graduate, I have always had an interest in flood modelling and analytics, so insurance and catastrophe modelling were in many ways a natural fit—I just didn’t realise the job existed at the time!
If I had known about the cat modelling and analytics part of the industry sooner, I would have actively sought it out as a career. I do think that part of the beauty of the insurance industry is learning about different parts and discovering what’s right for you.
I am also attracted to the fact that re/insurance plays a hugely positive social role in helping people and communities to recover when natural catastrophes and other disasters occur.
Do you think the industry is attractive to young professionals?
Very much so. Attracting talent will always be one of the most crucial elements of a successful industry.
The key is to find better ways to engage with younger people. The industry needs to better attract young people, engage a younger workforce and increase loyalty with younger staff. I would suggest engaging with new talent—not just in universities, but in schools too.
For example, I am part of a Lloyd’s Mentoring scheme where I mentor a sixth form student in a school in Tower Hamlets in London. After spending six months talking to my mentee about my work experience, she was immediately engaged and curious about opportunities with the insurance industry.
That may not be the case for every young person, but it was an immediate way of engaging with young people and putting the insurance sector on the radar.
Nobody can deny that the industry needs to do more to improve diversity. I would say over the past 10 years there have been huge improvements to introduce diverse and inclusive practices across the industry although I think there is still a lot of work to be done. Recruiting from a wider talent pool will help the industry in tackling some of the big challenges we face and evolve at the pace it needs to.
Do you think the re/insurance industry offers good opportunities and career development to young professionals?
Definitely! People often associate the industry with broking and underwriting as the predominant types of roles insurance has to offer, but there is a plethora of other roles that appeal to a wider cross-section of people with different skillsets and interests. There are also new roles being created every day to help meet the growing demands and needs of the industry so the job you have in five to 10 years’ time might not exist today, which is an exciting prospect.
My career shows some examples of the less traditional or known roles available in the industry but also some of the most exciting. In my mind, working with a technology solution such as TigerEye will always offer opportunities for career development as we work to evolve and develop both TigerEye and other future solutions to meeting changing industry needs and new client requirements.
The industry is facing new challenges every day and new challenges will always present opportunities in some form and the variety of opportunities is extraordinary.
The “typical” day in many roles is also changing and it could vary from helping a client manage its risk to helping with a technology challenge. That is why we need young people in the industry: to help bring new perspectives and ideas to help the industry continue to evolve.
Martin Thomas
Head of underwriting management
Probitas Syndicate 1492
“It is easier than you think to transform prior experience or personal interest into an insurance profession.”
I found my way into insurance through a breakthrough modelling company in London called Sciemus (now MGA Occam), where I started as a business development & marketing manager. I then moved to Willis, where I headed a division of the broker covering internal and external communications. When I moved to StarStone Insurance in 2015, my role morphed from business development into underwriting change management.
As deputy active underwriter of Syndicate 1301, I focused on process and operational change management. I moved in 2020 to Probitas 1492 to become head of underwriting management.
Tell us about your role now and how you got there
During my time at StarStone I was involved in the build and rollout of new underwriting, claims, finance, performance management, and ancillary systems and processes across the multinational insurer.
With the new operating model in place, I began the development of a new underwriting control framework and was asked to become the deputy active underwriter to the syndicate to further facilitate the compliance with Lloyd’s underwriting standards.
I left StarStone in late 2020 to join Probitas Syndicate 1492, a top quartile performing syndicate which was undergoing a transition to establish its own managing general agency (MGA).
With the transition underway, many of the activities were similar to the underwriting and operations changes I had spearheaded at StarStone, namely the enhancement of underwriting control and process, regulatory compliance and reporting, and underwriting culture.
Why did you choose to go into the re/insurance industry?
I knew very little of the insurance market when I graduated from university. I had a very brief background in technology through experiencing working at a video gaming company which gave me a slight edge at my first insurance job, working for a tech-based MGA.
While the insurance market was a far cry away from the tech world the focus on people-oriented business was a refreshing experience. The friendly culture of the market and dependence on interpersonal dynamics of business transactions hooked me in. Six months into my first role I knew this was an industry I wanted to develop a career in.
Do you think the industry is attractive to young professionals?
For those that know about it, yes. Like many others I had little to no knowledge of the insurance industry prior to joining it. The blend of technical and business-savvy roles creates an interesting market dynamic and provides opportunities to a wide range of young professions with divergent skillsets and backgrounds.
This is a fact not commonly known to people outside the market (or without family connections with insurance experience). Insurance is about risk, and risk is everywhere, whether you are looking at racehorses, spacecraft, or Cristiano Ronaldo’s right foot. It is easier than you think to transform prior experience or personal interest into an insurance profession.
Do you think the re/insurance industry offers good opportunities and career development to young professionals?
Yes. Insurance is not a 9–5 industry, but for those willing to work hard, challenge themselves and focus on building the connections and relationships that drive the market, there are fantastic opportunities to be had.
Many large insurers offer structured, multi-divisional graduate schemes that will give you a fantastic foundation as you are finding your feet. There is also no shortage of talks, panels, discussions, and presentations hosted by chartered institutes, Lloyd’s, and market organisations.
Above all else, there is no shortage of mentors. Insurance has a wealth of human capital, and I have never met a seasoned insurance professional who was unwilling to pass on their knowledge when asked.
The last five to 10 years have brought a technological revolution in the industry with degrees of change much more suited to graduates and young professionals. It’s not essential, but if you have a good head for numbers and can learn systems and applications quickly, you can quickly become invaluable to your chosen employer. Leverage this, and a great career awaits.
Barbara Ulrich-Kistler
Operations manager Switzerland
Swiss Re
“Theory is one thing, but to learn the basics and deploy them is important.”
Tell us about your role now and how you got there
As operations manager of Swiss Re Corporate Solutions (CorSo) in Switzerland I’m responsible for the end-to-end delivery of operations services to our internal and external clients. My role includes leading a team of seven underwriting assistants, meeting performance indicators and stakeholder management and also to challenge and improve existing processes.
I’m also involved in broadening CorSo’s international programme capabilities as a subject matter expert.
It’s very important for me that there is not only a qualitative and effective daily business support provided but also my team members get opportunities for growing and expanding. This happened to me as I got the position as an operations manager out of my work as an underwriting analyst.
Before that I gained experience as a junior underwriter in the property facultative market, team leader underwriting services and deal administrator for international programs.
Why did you choose to go into the re/insurance industry?
I rather landed in the insurance industry by coincidence, as the internship of my first education was offered in either the banking or the insurance industry. In 2010 I joined XL Insurance Switzerland as a deal administrator.
I got the opportunity to work as an underwriting analyst for international programmes and I liked the variety of my daily tasks, including interacting worldwide with different cultures. During this time, I learned that insurance includes far more than ‘paying indemnity’. The diversity is what keeps me within this industry.
Do you think the industry is attractive to young professionals?
The reputation of the industry for young professionals, at least in Switzerland, could be improved. Other industries (eg, pharma, IT, etc) look more attractive and agile at the first glance. However, a young professional will soon figure out that there are broad opportunities for different career paths within insurance.
This also shows in the amount of people, who are switching from different industries (eg, engineering, agriculture, etc) to the insurance industry.
Do you think the re/insurance industry offers good opportunities and career development to young professionals?
The industry, with its global nature and the companies with their career development programmes, offers a big variety of opportunities and career paths. However, one point, which is key to me, is to ensure that people can gather experience in the various steps of the value chain and at various levels.
Theory is one thing, but to learn the basics and deploy them is important to understand the complexity and practical challenges of the industry. This will become more difficult in a world full of technology and sometimes with geographical splits of the different tasks within the value chain.
How should a young professional gain the requested experience to become an expert once no more basic level job profiles are available in the market? This is a balancing act, which needs to be figured out.
Albert Zhou
SVP, actuarial director
SiriusPoint
“We should adapt to the changing expectations of our incoming workforce.”
I began my career as an actuarial consultant at Ernst & Young where I completed actuarial credentials while supporting various insurance clients. I joined Third Point Re in 2014 to build out the reserving and capital modelling functions, and was appointed actuarial director in 2019, leading the US actuarial team.
When Third Point Re merged with Sirius to form SiriusPoint in February 2021, I was appointed lead of the pricing function for the US reinsurance platform.
Tell us about your role now and how you got there
I lead the actuarial pricing team of SiriusPoint’s US reinsurance platform, where we provide traditional and structured reinsurance solutions for all lines of business, including property, casualty, and specialty.
Before the merger with Sirius this year, I led the US actuarial at Third Point Re, where I managed a team of actuaries in reinsurance pricing, loss reserving, risk management, and capital modelling. In addition to the actuarial work, I drove the company’s financial planning processes, and helped build and cultivate our strategic investments portfolio.
I joined Third Point Re in 2014 to build out the reserving and capital modelling functions. The company’s collaborative and entrepreneurial culture meant I was involved in multiple areas of actuarial and non-actuarial work, which has enabled me to learn and contribute along multiple dimensions.
Why did you choose to go into the re/insurance industry?
I was drawn into the industry because of the actuarial profession, which I discovered when I started college. I held internships in sophomore year and my eyes were opened to re/insurance, which combines practical quantitative aspects with business sense. I had the opportunity to join Third Point Re in 2014, and my time there was instrumental in cementing my commitment to the industry.
There are two main reasons I enjoy working in this industry. The first is that my work is intellectually rewarding, giving the opportunity to blend quantitative and qualitative skills.
The second—and perhaps more important—is that the success of the industry ultimately enables the flourishing of society as a whole, providing coverage for risks that are too big for any single person or entity to bear. If we can do this successfully, we can create value and a lasting positive impact in our world.
Do you think the industry is attractive to young professionals?
This industry has enormous opportunity for young professionals to build a long, stable, and successful career. The challenge is catching their attention in a world with a plethora of information and opportunity. We must broaden our methods of reaching young people to inform them of the industry.
One step could be to diversify the traditional university pipeline. The industry could be more proactive in reaching out to less represented groups and help to ensure that these candidates have access to opportunities in the market. We also must foster diverse and inclusive environments which enable young professionals to thrive once they join our industry.
Culture will be the ‘X factor’ in all of this. When making decisions about where to work, a company’s mission, vision and values will be important. For some, understanding the social good impact of the work they are doing will be important.
For others, flexibility, such as the ability to work remotely, will be more valued. As an industry, we should adapt to the changing expectations of our incoming workforce in order to bring in the next generation of talent.
Do you think the re/insurance industry offers good opportunities and career development to young professionals?
In general, yes, and for a young person, the question is twofold: what can this industry teach me, and what can I bring to the table? Insurance is very complex—it is an industry where years of experience is invaluable to making decisions, and there are nuances that can only be learned with time. There is ample opportunity for young people to join the industry and develop a vibrant career.
That said, the industry can be guilty of sometimes lacking energy and innovation. In some quarters, there is a lack of understanding about how fundamental technology has moved forward, for example, new data sources, software tools, and technology stacks. Consumer behaviour has also significantly changed, and insurers will need diverse perspectives to be able to most effectively adapt to an evolving world.
