The Insurance Institute of London
CII website PFS website

President's Message

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.

Once described as "the oxygen of the world economy", our industry’s role is critical for continued economic development and resilience. This has never been more important than it is now. New, emerging and changing risk profiles for organisations and individuals across the globe demand an enabling response from the (re)insurance industry.

My sense is that our ability as a marketplace to innovate quickly and to deliver solutions at scale has reduced in recent years. I recognise of course the product development skills and industry specific expertise that we still have at the heart of our Specialty market, and it’s also clear many firms across the marketplace are moving quickly to harness modern technologies - and of course AI.

But I do feel we need to collaborate more to drive more innovation at scale.

We should be dedicating more time and resource to design products that will respond to our existing and future clients' key risks. Many players in the market fairly describe themselves as innovators, but what I am talking about is the type of innovation that delivers a large-scale product offering in something new. Where industry players collaborate with each other, other financiers, public sector bodies, and governments where necessary.

I would like to see this principle being a more accepted part of our marketplace. We are naturally disposed to collaborate as an industry in any event, whilst simultaneously competing furiously with each other of course. If we can really leverage this predilection alongside our Specialty skills, industry frameworks like the Lloyd’s Lab and our enhanced ability to drive efficient risk syndication (now globally not just in London), we will be in good shape to address societies ever changing requirements.

The work and purpose of the Insurance Institute of London continues therefore to be critical. We need a highly educated, skilled and focussed workforce to deliver everything that lies ahead.

We should all stress the importance of education throughout our firms – the need to demonstrate curiosity and continuously develop our own knowledge and skills is essential – whatever role you play in your firm or the industry.

 

29 September 2025