Q&A
Biba 2025 Countdown: Aurora’s Tom Willmore
With the 2025 British Insurance Brokers’ Association conference only just over a week away Tom Willmore, broker distribution lead at Aurora, offers up offers useful tips to keep delegates moving and well fed with pies, as well as why the mantra ‘quality…
Biba 2025 Countdown: Collinson Insurance’s Jo Shorthouse
Collinson Insurance’s business development lead Jo Shorthouse doubles up on comfy shoes, nominates Ecclesiastical’s Richard Coleman as insurance’s answer to Gareth Southgate, and believes brokers should embrace the opportunities afforded by AI.
Biba 2025 Countdown: Granite’s Alistair Rose
Alistair Rose, managing director of Granite Underwriting, talks up the merchandise on its stand, recommends Manchester Art Gallery as a calm place to reflect on the Biba buzz, and highlights an emergency snack stash as essential to get through the two…
Biba Countdown 2025: SSP Broker’s Martyn Mathews
With the latest Biba conference soon upon us, Martyn Mathews, MD of SSP Broker, highlights the importance of socks, teases a revised sneak peek of its proposition, and explains how he could give speaker Gareth Southgate a run for his money as manager of…
Biba 2025 Countdown: Coalition’s Tom Draper
Coalition UK managing director Tom Draper looks forward to filling an extra bag with Biba swag and giveaways; explains why Oasis’ Stand By Me sums up the event perfectly; and explains how it will be supporting brokers with relevant, real-world content on…
Biba 2025 Countdown: Applied Systems’ Tom Needs
Tom Needs, CEO of Applied Systems, is looking forward to a New Era of more efficient, responsive, and customer-centric broking; reckons Arsène Wenger would make a good insurance leader; and expects to end the event with a hoarse throat.
Biba 2025 Countdown: Beazley’s Sam Franks
Sam Franks, country manager and head of partner engagement for the UK & Ireland at Beazley, promises plenty of pink and underwriters on its stand; offers advice about how brokers can differentiate themselves from their peers in the market; and looks…
Biba 2025 countdown: Arch Insurance UK’s Janine Starkie
Janine Starkie, regional manager for the North and Scotland at Arch Insurance UK teases a special guest for its event at the Exhibition Bar; reveals she has snagged Oasis tickets; and looks forward to promoting its ‘hub-and-spoke’ model that ensures…
Biba 2025 Countdown: Bridgehaven’s Paul Jewell
Paul Jewell, CEO of Bridgehaven hails Mike Keating’s ability to not park the bus; looks forward to discussing the exciting opportunities presented by alternative capacity providers; and recommends delegates visit Manchester’s answer to Hogwarts.
Biba 2025 Countdown: Markel’s Jo Sykes
Jo Sykes, divisional director, broker & ATE UK at Markel, promises a partnership with an Olympic champion; expects to see another uptick in attendance at its annual hospitality event; and looks forward to putting her sore feet up and checking the iPad…
Biba 2025 Countdown: Flood Re’s Kelly Ostler-Coyle
Kelly Ostler-Coyle, head of communications and stakeholder engagement, Flood Re looks forward to sharing information about its Chelsea Flower Show medal-winning Flood Resilient Garden, handing out Freddy the Flood Re ducks, and expects Oasis sound…
Biba 2025 Countdown: Commercial Express’ Duncan Pritchard
In a month’s time it will be day two of the 2025 British Insurance Brokers’ Association Conference. As part of Insurance Age's countdown to the event Duncan Pritchard, managing director of Commercial Express, shares his insights.
Biba 2025 Countdown: QBE’s Stacey Flannery
With only one month to go until the Biba 2025 conference, Stacey Flannery, head of trading (Manchester) at QBE, kicks off Insurance Age’s countdown series.
Scrapping minimum training hours – Q&A with Crescens George, CEO of Wiser Academy
Last month, the Financial Conduct Authority proposed scrapping the specified minimum hours of training and development required for insurance employees.
Meet the MGA: MX Underwriting
Ian Cook, managing director at MX Underwriting, explains why he believes MGAs are not suffering a capacity crunch, and outlines plans to write in excess of £200m GWP in 2025 and add to MX’s product range and capability.
Meet the MGA: Optio Underwriting
With an aim to be the most admired global specialty MGA, Optio Underwriting group CEO Deepak Soni outlines how it attracts top talent, plans to mix organic growth with M&A and discusses the importance of having a PE backer that understands the subtle…
Meet the MGA: Aspect
Following its recent brand refresh Oli Williamson, co-founder and chief underwriter, explains how Aspect is seeking to expand its core mid-corporate market offering into new areas such as terrorism and cyber – with an eye very much on how it can leverage…
Meet the MGA: Elmlake Underwriting
A seasoned professional indemnity underwriter, Darren Galloway, managing director of new MGA Elmlake Underwriting, explains how it plans to fuse both traditional and modern approaches to offer a one-stop shop for brokers and their clients.
Q&A: Christy Chisholm, group sales and marketing director at Clear Group
With 100 days in the role after joining Clear Group from Premium Credit, group sales and marketing director Christy Chisholm reflects on the initial challenges, successes and her work with the British Insurance Brokers’ Association promoting insurance as…
Meet the MGA: Carrow Insurance
Looking to mend the disconnect between MGAs and carriers to get back to the ‘win-win situation’ where consistency and partnerships are a focus, Carrow Insurance will only write in product areas it has deep-seated expertise, CEO Ronan Conboy tells…
Q&A with Andrea Wells of Premium Credit
Andrea Wells was recently recruited from Broker Insights by Premium Credit for its newly created role of head of regions and networks. In a Q&A with Insurance Age she shares her insurance market experience and plans for growing the business with brokers.
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…
Review of the Year 2024: OneAdvent’s Tim Quayle
Tim Quayle, CEO of OneAdvent, raises his eyebrows over the BMS/DR&P deal; would stress the importance of proportionality to the FCA; and believes 2024 will go down as the Era of Stability.
Review of the Year 2024: VIPR Solutions’ Paul Templar
Paul Templar, co-founder and CEO at VIPR Solutions, would like to see the term ‘seamless integration’ consigned to 2024; predicts straight-through processing will become standard practice; and fancies his chances in the Dragons’ Den.