Q&A
Review of the Year 2024: Woodgate and Clark’s Simon Jones
Simon Jones, client services director at Woodgate & Clark, explains why digital transformation is no longer a differentiator, circularity in property repairs is key to sustainable claims handling and a lack of air travel means Race Across the World is the perfect reality TV show for him.
Review of the Year 2024: Axa UK’s Paul Tombs and Matt Field
The Axa UK duo of Paul Tombs and Matt Field reflect on award wins; the fall-out of the Markerstudy-Atlanta deal and the success of its partnership with Liverpool FC.
Review of the Year 2024: Acrisure UK’s Mark McIlquham
Mark McIlquham, CEO of Acrisure UK, expresses disappointment at high-quality independent intermediaries selling to consolidators; still thinks a big insurer might snap up a broker; and reckons his children would take delight in watching him take part in…
Review of the Year 2024: SSP’s Martyn Mathews
Martyn Mathews, MD of SSP Broker reflects on disappointing vote-winning rhetoric, renaming the NEC the Mathews Arena, and asks whether the FCA might roll back a little on some of the principles of Consumer Duty and Fair Value
Meet the MGA feature: Arc Legal
Arc Legal CEO Lee Taylor outlines the value in having a supportive parent of the scale of AmTrust; and why it makes sense to keep an eye on legislation and social changes in order to innovate and develop new products.
Review of the Year 2024: Commercial Express’s Duncan Pritchard
Duncan Pritchard, managing director of Commercial Express would like to leave the term underinsurance behind in 2024, reflects on the amount of time he spent trying to get Oasis tickets, and why it would make perfect sense to appear on TV’s Survivor.
Review of the Year 2024: Markerstudy’s Gary Humphreys
Gary Humphreys, group chief underwriting officer at Markerstudy, hails the completion of the Atlanta deal, dreams of having the MGA’s brand adorn the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and mulls sitting on the sofa and doing Channel 4’s Gogglebox.
Review of the Year 2024: Ageas’ Middle, Linklater, Clarke and Beckett
The senior Ageas team wish the term ghost broking is never uttered again, hope for a sustainable ecosystem for the repair and re-use of electric vehicle batteries, and consider what an insurance brokers showstopper might look like on Great British Bake…
Review of the Year 2024: Pen Underwriting’s Nick Wright
Nick Wright, chief development officer at Pen Underwriting, questions the market’s short memory with regards boom-and-bust; is interested in the future of PIB and pan-European consolidation; and offers a pitch to take part in Bear Grylls’s The Island.
Review of the Year 2024: Allianz Commercial’s Nick Hobbs
Allianz Commercial chief distribution officer Nick Hobbs is intrigued by Aviva’s Probitas deal, bemoans the continued presence of underinsurance and hopes that the term ‘insurer service’ is consigned to the clickbait dustbin.
Review of the Year 2024: Collegiate’s Richard Turnbull
Collegiate managing director Richard Turnbull expresses disappointment with the return of the ‘pay-to-play’ model in broking, surprise at Aon’s acquisition of Griffith & Armour and considers whether 2024 was the ‘era of repeating past mistakes’.
Review of the year 2024: Brown & Brown’s Sime
Chris Sime, group markets director at Brown & Brown Europe, predicts a UK consolidator could get taken out by a US broker, wonders why buyers continue to pay multiples on unrealistic Ebitda projections and mulls what a Blanc/Winslow reunion might look…
Review of the Year 2024: Hedron Network’s Duncan Pagan
Duncan Pagan, consultancy services director at Hedron, reflects on frown-inducing M&A; weighs up the tangible benefits-to-burden ratio when it comes to regulation; and would love to see the Hedron brand atop the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury.
Review of the Year 2024: iprism’s Ian Lloyd
Ian Lloyd, CEO of iprism, reflects on integrating the MGA’s first acquisition, the over-use of the term AI and how he might shake the curse of ‘dad dancing’ by appearing on Strictly Come Dancing.
Polaris at 30 – Jackie Childs
In the concluding instalment of Polaris at 30, senior business analyst at the insurance industry-owned organisation Jackie Childs rounds up the progress on digital trading moving from monthly personal lines updates sent out on floppy discs to the new era…
Polaris at 30 – Phil Bayles
In the final day of the Polaris at 30 Q&A series Ardonagh’s Phil Bayles assesses the development of digital trading from slow, cumbersome and inflexible systems to becoming mainstream.
Polaris at 30 – Derek Cowie
Derek Cowie started working at General Accident (now Aviva) in 1992. Polaris was founded in 1994 launching digital trading platform imarket in 2004.
Polaris at 30 – Theo Duchen
Acturis Group co-CEO Theo Duchen delivers the third Q&A of the Polaris at 30 series and details the collective goal that would put “the UK light years ahead of any other market”.
Polaris at 30 – Stuart Reid
In the second Q&A instalment of the Polaris at 30 series, chair of Partners& Stuart Reid shares memories of the industry moving from paper rating guides to digital trading and his view on the “plainly daft” frustration in e-trading today.
Polaris at 30 – Ray Vincent
As insurance industry owned Polaris celebrates its 30th birthday, Insurance Age asks experts for their recollections on the dawn of digital trading and what is coming next.
Polaris at 30 – managing director Vivek Banga
Ahead of a week-long ‘Polaris at 30’ series Insurance Age caught up with managing director Vivek Banga to run the rule over the history of e-trading developments and what is coming next for brokers.