Podcast: Reid and Clegg present Double Indemnity – episode 14, John O’Roarke and Phil Bunker

The former accountants explain how they first met through the acquisition of NIG by Churchill, where despite their respective bosses not getting along and cries of “channel conflict”, the pair made a success of the deal.

O’Roarke, pictured centre left, then takes the story on to how the pair reunited at Liverpool Victoria (with around 800 former colleagues), taking over a general insurance business that was “going backwards” to going toe-to-toe with Direct Line, entering the broker market and buying Highway Insurance.

The duo discuss whether their success at LV was a “last hurrah” for anti-corporate entrepreneurial go-getters to effectively run a major insurance start-up; and how they turned a “free hit” from a £300m business to one five times that size when they left.

Not bad for a business dismissed as the B-Team by O’Roarke and Bunker’s former paymasters at RBS Insurance.

Finally, the pair discuss private equity, their post-LV careers in non-executive roles and the importance of motivated staff.

Catch up on the entire series through our bespoke Double Indemnity page, which includes recent episodes featuring:

• Matthew Hill, CEO, Chartered Insurance Institute
• Tom Kirkland, founder and CEO of Cameron Specialty
• Vivek Banga, managing director, Polaris UK

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