On behalf of our Institute and its members, I would like to thank our outgoing president, Lucy Clarke. Whilst executing an extremely demanding full-time role, Lucy has served the Institute with distinction as its President.

It is a privilege and honour to serve as your President. My entire career has been spent in the London market, working in both the reinsurance and specialty/wholesale insurance sectors. I have been a member of the CII and IIL throughout the entirety of my career. I could never have imagined when I started that one day I would become President of the Institute.

I soon realised in the initial stages of my career why the journey to obtaining my ACII was important. It was truly clear to me just how critical are the foundational and specialised skills that can be taught and learnt through the Institute. Our industry is fraught with challenges – after all we are in the risk business - and we can serve our clients badly if we forget our basics and core technical skills – the CII and the IIL more specifically for those of us in London provide the opportunity to learn these skills so that they become second nature. They also offer a framework to enhance our knowledge of the wider industrial, geo-political, economic, and environmental context for our industry.

London has been at the centre of this great industry for hundreds of years. Despite many changes and challenges along the way and the oft-predicted demise of our marketplace, London continues to be the pre-eminent Specialty marketplace in the insurance world. We still play a leading role in finding solutions for clients with very large or particularly difficult or unusual risk profiles.