UK Broker Week: Steve White reflects on his career

The ex-Biba boss reflected on his career, how he celebrated winning the Achievement Award in 2019, and offered his younger self some advice.

White said he was “flattered and humbled” at receiving the prestigious accolade (see box, right). He thanked those around him and credited their efforts for the prize as well as his career successes. Using a football metaphor he highlighted: “You don’t win manager of the year if your team are average.

“I took that as being an indication that the work that the collective Biba team was doing was being widely recognised by the market.”

Early career

In July 2023, White retired from being CEO of Biba after 10 years in the role.

In his own words, White was “one of the few who actually chose” insurance as a career.

Recalling going to work with his father in an office during his later years of school, he said: “I got used to putting on a suit, working with adults and earning money.

“The combination of those three took me away from a more academic start to life,” he continued, pointing to them as the main reason why he turned down university in favour of working.

Questioned on whether he thought he would ever win something like the Achievement Award, White responded: “When I came into the industry in 1977, there was not such a thing as awards in the evenings. So, it wasn’t even on the edge of the radar, so to speak.

“When I came in, I was looking for what would hopefully be an interesting career. And it certainly turned out that way.”

Enthusiasm and variety

It was “all the ingredients” of a “broad, fascinating industry” that kept White engaged with insurance for so long.

“It wasn’t a case of sat behind the same desk looking at the same screen for 45, 46 years,” he said. “It was a real variety. It was that variety, I think, that kept me enthused.”

And he indicated the variety persists to this day.

“There are opportunities right the way across the industry. There’s a huge amount of variety, huge amounts of different things being done by different people in different ways. I think the old adage, there’s more than one way to skin a cat, holds very true.”

Career journey

Reflecting on the journey of his career, White had experience of “underwriting in a head office environment to underwriting in a field environment”, which led him to the “distribution phase” of his career.

He went into the compliance arena, around five years before regulation became mandatory.

“That was quite a move,” he said. “It set me up as being a focal point of informed opinion on regulatory matters, which gave me quite an advantage.”

It was on that basis that he’d joined Biba, to set up and then head up a regulatory and compliance function, which in turn led nine years later to becoming CEO for a decade.

“You can see from that sort of history there’s a real variety there,” he noted.

Advice

“Keep your eyes and ears open,” would be the advice to his younger self. “Don’t look to run before you can walk, but opportunities will present themselves.

“Sometimes you have to look quite closely to spot an opportunity, you don’t often see the word opportunity flashing in lights and buzzing. If you can add two and two and get to four you can spot opportunities.”

And rounded it all off with: “Enjoy it! It is a great industry, there are fabulous people doing fabulous things all around the industry. It’s just a case of eyes open, ears open and soak it up.”

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