As we reflect on an incredibly busy summer period, the group continues to thrive with yet more new faces, new carrier relationships and new clients.
I’m incredibly proud of your collective efforts. It has been fantastic to see the Rokstone team recognised not once but twice - at two leading industry awards, picking up ‘MGA of the Year’ at both the British Insurance Awards and the Insurance Insider Honours Awards. Up against strong competition on both occasions, a big congratulations to the Rokstone team for this outstanding achievement.
We have worked hard to create a genuine family culture at Aventum. This is something I am extremely passionate about. We will be making further commitments to every member of the Aventum family around the world in the coming months as we continue to provide an environment that allows you to work hard but play harder.
I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at our ‘Amplify’ party in Soho, London, on 6th October where we can celebrate our continued success together.
David Bearman CEO
H ere’s just a selection of the new faces joining the #AventumFamily since the last edition. Read on to find out more about our new recruits.
What was your work history before joining Aventum?
I really liked that everyone I spoke to kept referring to the ‘Aventum Family’, it makes the Company seem like a very
Be nice to people on the way up because you are bound to meet them on the way down.
What was your work history before joining Aventum?
Originally, 20+ years at Iron Trades Insurance and via Claims Manager at BIBU.
How, when and why did you first get into the insurance industry?
My friend’s father managed an insurance office and he offered
inclusive place to work and somewhere where everyone would be supported. I also loved the role, working on projects to help improve the finance function seemed really rewarding.
Favourite film/TV show? Breaking Bad.
Are you an avid supporter of any sports teams? If so which ones?
I’m a Chelsea fan and a Harlequins fan.
Red sauce, brown sauce, or no sauce at all?
Brown sauce on bacon, red sauce on sausages.
me a job before I attended university. 40 years later and I’m still here.
What do you get up to outside of work?
Mainly dog-walking my 8 year old cockapoo Bella.
Favourite quote?
Actually a line from Oasis. Some might say they don’t believe in Heaven. Go tell that to the man who lives in Hell.
What made you want to join Aventum?
I wanted to join Aventum because of the community it holds and the opportunities it has to offer.
I like to be able to see my next step and I feel at Aventum I will be able to do just that.
What do you do outside of work? Outside of work I like to spend time with family and friends. I am also a trained beautician so I still do a few appointments outside of work to keep myself busy.
If you could change one thing about yourself what would it be?
If I could change one thing about me, I would make myself a little taller. They don’t make a perfect length Jean/Trouser for 5’2.
Favourite film? Forest Gump.
I love the complexity of the insurance industry.
I decided, through lockdown, it was time for a career change and decided insurance.
SENIOR CREDIT CONTROLLER
Be yourself, no one will do it better.
What made you want to join Aventum?
To be part of something vibrant, forward thinking and the excitement of being “in at the start” with like-minded people.
What excites you most about working for Aventum?
That we are on an upward trajectory and we have great people and energy in the organization.
My mother tongue –Yoruba (Nigerian).
What foreign languages do you speak?
A bit of French and Spanish with a bad accent!
What are you most proud of? Being someone that my family and friends love and respect.
If you could pick up a skill instantly what would it be? Singing.
Unusual fact about yourself? My blood group is B+.
Aventum came across as a very dynamic and fast-placed area to work.
What made you want to join Aventum?
The role seemed extremely interesting and Aventum came across as a very dynamic and fast-placed area to work and that really interests me.
What was your work history before joining Aventum?
I had worked 9 months at Lancashire group where I was doing terrorism modelling.
What made you want to join Aventum?
It is a very fast paced environment with highly motivated people ‘who dare to be different’ in the Insurance domain. Also, the opportunity to drive the implementation of the Agile Scrum framework in the Digital Product Development space.
Who is the person you admire most and why?
My mother – She is so beautiful and my main cheerleader. Despite the harsh journey through life, she’s so generous and optimistic.
Red sauce, brown sauce, or no sauce at all?
Red sauce with hot chilli.
What do you get up to outside of work?
I do a lot of bouldering at various places in London as well as reading and watching TV shows.
Are you an avid supporter of any sports teams? If so which ones?
Arsenal fan – all my life!
Favourite film/TV show? Peep show.
What do you get up to outside of work?
Walking my dog, Cash. Spending time with my wife, Nina, hiking, and cooking on my Big Green Egg. What made you want to join Aventum?
I was looking for a company that values and empowers its
employees and emphasizes quality underwriting.
What was your first job? Mowing Lawns.
If you could pick up a skill instantly what would it be? Flying a plane.
Favourite book? Anything written by Brad Thor.
What do you get up to outside of work?
Stand-Up Comic, singer (very occasional Freddie Mercury tribute, Short Fat Freddie…!), travelling, hiking, sport, avid film buff.
I trained for ten weeks at Pineapple Dance Studios in London in Street Dance/Hip Hop.
What was your work history before joining Aventum? Slightly nomadic & insurance based, working for RSA, JLT, Xchanging, Charles Taylor, Chubb among others.
What’s the one piece of advice you’ve had that has stuck with you? My uncle screaming “LOOK OUT!” when a car nearly hit me when I was seven.
What foreign languages do you speak?
Pigeon GCSE French, enough to cope with buying lager of dubious quality in Calais.
What do you get up to outside of work?
Outside of family time with my wife and daughter, I enjoy going to the gym, fishing, hiking, rugby (restricted to just watching now, used to play a bit back in the day) and walking our Labrador “Cali”.
What made you want to join Aventum?
Aventum has a reputation of looking after its employees, and of an excellent work-life balance. It was a no brainer to seriously consider Aventum if a position arose there.
What was your first job? Labourer at a Concreting Works.
Favourite film/TV show? Game of Thrones.
Are you an avid supporter of any sports teams? If so which ones?
Munster Rugby / Ireland.
Don’t let success go to your head. Don’t let failure go to your heart.
Talent is nothing, without hard graft.
Measure twice, cut once.
What do you get up to outside of work?
What made you want to join Aventum?
It was time for a switch up – right place right time I guess. I was very excited to join Aventum/ Consilium.
Favourite book? Tattooist of Auschwitz.
What’s an unusual fact about yourself?
I am type One Diabetic.
After many years in the London market I was after a fresh challenge.
What was your work history before joining Aventum?
I have nearly 35 years insurance experience, firstly with a MGA for about 10 years and then 3 different Lloyds Brokers all within the UK and Irish non motor markets.
What do you get up to outside of work?
I enjoy watching sport and playing golf/football. I also enjoy music, film and travelling.
Living or dead, which three people would you invite to your ideal dinner party?
Steve McQueen, George Best & Liam Gallagher.
If you could pick up a skill instantly what would it be? To be able to fly a plane.
I own three horses – Lola, Dallas & Luna all of which are out competing to a national level, we mostly showjump and event. They keep me busy at all times outside of work. When I’m not riding, I’m out and about walking with my Jack Russell, Duke.
If it’s not happy, it’s not the end!
What foreign languages do you speak?
Hindi and a bit of French.
What do you get up to out of work? Outside of work, I predominantly love travelling. I also socialize a lot as well as cook and watch crime documentaries.
What do you enjoy most about working in insurance?
The people - they’re different from any other industry.
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? My impatience in getting things done!
What’s a fact about yourself?
I couldn’t speak good English till 15- I moved over from India straight into Year 10 at school in the UK.
What’s your ideal holiday destination?
Bali.
I’d
a career.
Where do you see yourself in five years?
Hopefully looking back proudly at the part I have played in Aventum Group’s continued growth trajectory to become one of the most recognised, respected and consistently profitable businesses in our industry.
What made you want to join Aventum?
I wanted to work for a dynamic, entrepreneurial and aspirational organisation shaking up the insurance market; somewhere that I can use my skills and experience to make a tangible difference. And I wanted to work with people that I trust and respect whose values are aligned to my own. Aventum Group squarely fitted all of these requirements!
Living or dead, which three people would you invite to your ideal dinner party?
Winston Churchill, Theodore Dreiser and David Bearman.
What made you want to join Aventum?
Aventum offers an opportunity to work on things that you are passionate about in the insurance industry by giving autonomy
where your ideas matter and its unique corporate culture on the market.
Favourite music artist?
As a professional guitar player, I always liked an admirably philanthropic musician Sting, phenomes classical compositor Tchaikovsky, alto saxophone player Fausto Papetti and Mylene Farmer.
Aristotle
What do you get up to outside of work?
Cycling, yoga, child care.
What do you enjoy most about working for Aventum?
Flexible schedule and ability to work remotely.
What foreign languages do you speak?
Ukrainian, Russian.
If you could pick up a skill instally what would it be? Perfect knowledge of English.
If you could change one thing about yourself ,what would it be? Ability to accept changes in events.
What was your first job?
An electrician at electrical substation.
like to change the image and perception of insurance as
There is no easy way from the Earth to the stars.
Happiness depends upon ourselves.
I love the buzz of the City and this fascinating market we call insurance.
What made you want to join Aventum?
Aventum have been around a long time but appear to be just getting started and these are exciting times to be joining. On top of that I love variation in any role… despite what people may think not all accountants are boring!
What foreign languages do you speak?
Essex… does that count???
Who is the person you admire most and why?
My mum, because she is my mum.
What’s the one piece of advice you’ve had that has stuck with you?
Continue to work hard, that you can always learn more, and to never rest of your laurels.
What was your work history before joining Aventum? Before joining Aventum Group, I was HR Administrator at Amwins Global Risks.
What made you want to join Aventum?
The collaborative culture and the focus on developing my career further in HR.
What do you get up to outside of work?
What do you get up to outside of work?
I loved how hard working all the staff are and dedicated to their work.
In my spare time outside of work I like to keep myself fit and healthy by going on long walks and walking the dog daily. I will also make sure to spend some of my day keeping fit by doing exercises. I do also like going on holidays and meeting up friends for food and drink and spending time with family.
What excites you most about working for Aventum What excites me about working for Aventum is all the possibilities that you could go on and progress onto and how Aventum motives you to keep going and work towards to better.
Favorite quote? Dream big and dare to fail.
I love spending my time exploring new places, eating at new restaurants and going to art exhibitions.
Favourite film/TV show? I love Modern Family and Game of Thrones!
What’s your ideal holiday destination?
I’d love to travel to Japan.
I have been sworn in to support Liverpool FC by my young brother.
There’s an opportunity to learn something new every day.
What do you get up to outside of work?
My weekends and spare time consist of playing football, golf and socialising with friends.
What made you want to join Aventum?
Aventum have been constantly growing and I was interested and excited about the opportunities that they can offer in the future.
If you could pick up a skill instantly what would it be? Be able to speak Spanish.
Favourite film/TV show? Step Brothers / Peaky Blinders.
Are you an avid supporter of any sports teams? If so which ones?
Tottenham Hotspur.
Novus Underwriting team have an excellent reputation in the market.
What was your work history before joining Aventum? 25 years as a Warranty Underwriter most recently at NexAssure (5yrs), QBE Insurance (16 yrs) and before that at Domestic & General Insurance.
Worrying about tomorrow’s problems ruins today’s peace.
What do you get up to outside of work?
Catch up with family and friends and attend the gym when I can whilst training for upcoming OCR races. I also like to draw and paint on the odd occasion. How, when and why did you first get into the insurance industry?
I got into the industry in 2016 as a Binding Authority Management Technician, the idea was to work there temporarily whilst deciding whether to go to Uni… I decided against Uni!
Living or dead, which three people would you invite to your ideal dinner party?
Jonathan Van Ness, Ryan Reynolds, and Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark/Ironman.
What do you get up to outside of work?
Mudlarking on the Thames with my eldest son or painting in acrylics.
Who is the person you admire most and why?
My late father, an honest man who always brightened the room.
Favourite film/TV show? The Last Samurai / River Hunters. What’s your ideal holiday destination? Barbados.
SENIOR UNDERWRITING SERVICES EXECUTIVE
I originally got into THE BRIT school to study Art and Design.
I enjoy participating in creative projects with friends. My most recent was a collaboration project with Vans.
I also enjoy learning the guitar and drums in my spare time. I recently moved back to London
after living in Brighton for 5 years and enjoyed riding my bicycle along the coast on sunny days or take my dinghy out to the sea and enjoy cruising with friends.
What foreign languages do you speak?
Cantonese.
Favourite film/TV show? A Good Year.
I worked in a supermarket baking bread at 16.
What do you get up to outside of work?
Spending time with family, watching football restoring my classic car.
What made you want to join Aventum?
The opportunity to work in a new sector using the knowledge I already had.
What have you enjoyed most about your career up until now? Travelling and working in some far flung places.
What are you most proud of?
My family and I have just finished building our own house, and I once cycled from Land’s End to John O Groats, followed straight after by the 3 Peaks Challenge.
Red sauce, brown sauce, or no sauce at all?
Brown sauce only.
Aventum has a new business in eXponential, promising to blow the norms of DUA placement wide open.
There’s a lot of eXcitement bubbling at Aventum over a brand-new business that could be about to take the DUA market by storm.
The name eXponential has been floating around in conversations since the middle of last year. However, it was in September 2021 when progress really kicked into gear as Roshan Choolhun joined the company.
Vastly experienced in all things DUA, Roshan had long held a desire to offer coverholders and MGAs much more than what they were getting from their DUA broker. Further to this, in David Bearman and James Potter, he finally found a couple of visionaries who shared his desire.
“A lot of things fell into place,” Roshan says. “Not only did I like them as people, but I was really impressed by the kind of business they were building and their vision.”
What is the eXponential proposition?
In essence, it’s making available to coverholder/MGA clients all the services and resources at Aventum’s disposal to get them quality capacity and support their growth, following a similar strategy that has brought Rokstone its great success.
Offering extra services such as wording reviews, data analysis, compliance checks, marketing, claims handling, digital distribution expertise, and many more, sets
eXponential apart from other DUA brokers in the market that will only source the same capacity year after year, and take their hefty commission for minimal effort.
Roshan explains, “There is an inertia replicated among other broking houses in the market because it’s always been a high profit margin area of a broking houses’s business.” When people question why bother doing all of this for clients when the current system doesn’t appear broken, Roshan says, “I think it is a lazy way to, one, treat your clients, and two, to add value.”
Being independent, and more nimble than some of the larger broking houses Roshan refers to, we have been able to develop eXponential in a relatively short space of time. Roshan thinks even if someone were to get through all the red tape and bureaucracy entrenched at other DUA brokers, launching a proposition like eXponential would still take them over two years.
Whereas, eXponential already had a soft launch earlier in the year, in which it took over the management of Rokstone’s DUA requirements, and launched externally to the wider market at the MGAA conference in July. A clear plan is in place to have a 12 strong team by the end of the year to deliver this bold new offering.
The offering is already proving attractive. Since unveiling the
eXponential brand to the market, Roshan says demand has been high.
“The challenge is to make sure we don’t expand too quickly, so we can continue to deliver on our key principles,” he adds. “The level of interest is pretty big and you can run the risk of saying yes to everything and achieving nothing.”
The business is aiming for revenue of around $3m+ in the next 12 months by taking this selective approach, and only working with partners that share a growth focused mindset. “We want to work with like-minded MGAs that want to make an impact in their marketplace,” Roshan explains. “If we do come across an MGA that has been at $5m for the last few years and is happy to stay at about $5m in the years to come, then we are probably not the best option for them.”
Make no mistake, eXponential is pitching itself as a disruptor. Ambitious coverholder / MGA clients stand to gain the most by taking this bold step with us, away from traditional practices.
“There are a lot of coverholders that have just renewed and stuck with what they know, just because of familiarity with that way of working,” Roshan says. “What we’re trying to do is disrupt that existing mechanism and improve the service offering people should expect from their MGA services partner.”
At Aventum we’re not afraid to get down and dirty.
But we took that to new levels earlier this month when 35 of the Aventum Family took part in the Nuclear Races event in Brentwood.
If you’re unfamiliar with Nuclear Races, you just have to check out the pictures below to get a taste of what is involved.
In short, it was 75 obstacles, spread out over a 12k course, and lots and lots of mud!
Fortunately, we picked a sunny day for it, and from the outset the Aventum team spirit was there in bucket loads.
All donning the Aventum Dare to Discover T-shirts and war paint, we helped each other throughout to conquer the course, from giving a hand to help someone up a slippery slope, to literally all teaming up to haul others out of treacherously thick mud.
And while there were injuries and very many cuts and bruises suffered, everyone had fun, even if it took the well-earned beer and burger after the finish line to fully realise it.
Well done everyone that took part! You are amazing!
Mulberry women’s rugby team is a hit at Lloyd’s 7s tournament.
It’s well documented that Lloyd’s has a long-standing gender diversity issue. However, we are proud to have played our part in helping to combat gender stereotypes, in the recent rugby 7s event. This year, Lloyd’s opened up the annual tournament to women’s only teams, with our very own Mulberry Risk submitting the first full team.
Sophie Taylor, an Actuarial Analyst at Mulberry, has played rugby since her university days at Oxford and later Cambridge. She was the guiding light behind the team, even training up two Mulberry colleagues who had never so much as touched a rugby ball before. Fellow Actuarial Analyst Margarita Kotlyarova, and actuarial data engineer Maria Baez were the two Mulberries ready to give rugby a go. Sophie was extremely impressed by how quickly they picked up the game.
“Both of them are naturally athletic,” Sophie says. “Maria had good special awareness and ball handling skills. Margarita used to be a runner for Latvia so she had a natural athletic ability and pace already, so they were both pretty coachable.”
Joining the three Mulberries, forward Sophie called on a few of her ex-teammates from when she played at Cambridge – a team still today sponsored by Mulberry. It’s how Sophie came to be part of Mulberry, and it makes her proud to work for a company that encourages women to get involved in traditionally male-dominated areas – be it rugby or insurance.
Sophie believes Mulberry’s support for the Cambridge University women reflects the ethos of the company. She says, “It is a very male dominated industry and Mulberry and Aventum stand for gender equality and having women in roles that have previously been male dominated, such as an actuarial role, which is my role.”
On game day, in the mixed touch tournament against Aon, things didn’t go exactly to plan. Getting off to a poor start gave the team a mountain to climb. However, with an effective half-time peptalk, the team began to feel united. Becoming visibly stronger in the second half, the team even managed to score a few tries. Unfortunately, they weren’t enough to finish with a winning score.
Nevertheless, everyone had a fantastic time, enjoying the game, supporting the Aventum and Mulberry men’s teams and socialising with colleagues and other companies together in the team tents.
Having spoken to Lloyd’s organisers, Sophie says they are keen to introduce a women’s only competition next year. She believes that after the game they put on, there will be many more women across the industry interested in taking part. Confident that the game made a lot more people interested in the sport.
Sophie says, “It was more of a showcase this year, and now because some of the other girls saw us enjoying it, I think they might want to get involved in the future.”
As Mulberry looks set to keep expanding to keep up with growth over the next year, Sophie is also hopeful she might get more Mulberries to take part next time too. Getting more women to feel comfortable taking part in this annual Lloyd’s occasion, which has historically been male dominated, would represent a real movement in the market towards greater gender equality, and for that alone Sophie thinks the day was important.
“It was a good showcase both for women’s rugby and women’s sport, and women in insurance or finance. I think it represented a lot of things, not just rugby,” she adds. “It takes you having to make that move to get people to pay attention, and I think lots of people supported us and enjoyed watching the game, so hopefully it’s only upwards from here.”
01We are incredibly proud to have won ‘MGA of the Year’ at both the British Insurance Awards and Insider Honours. This success is testament to the whole team and the support we receive from the wider group.
The leadership team has had a busy few days in Monte Carlo at Rendezvous, with over 20 meetings in 3 days, it has been an incredibly successful event and great to meet with people face to face again.
The last few weeks has been all about the letter ‘R’, not for Rokstone but for ‘recognition’.
IAN ANSON - Managing Director
Another successful financial year came to a close at the end of June with the UK Wholesale Non Motor team at Consilium achieving in excess of 40% growth on the previous year. All of that, despite a particularly challenging market and the continued battle against the trend of brokers being purchased by the major consolidators.
Growth was achieved in all sectors, particularly in the construction industry where the recent addition of PI, and a Design and Construct speciality, saw prominent success.
Consilium has hosted various events for clients over the summer months including golf days and an inaugural karting event at Buckmore Park. All have been well attended, which provides a great moment to not just talk about work but to also have some fun with those that the team trade with daily.
The team, and all at Aventum would also like to wish Georgia Thurgood farewell as she leaves us temporarily for motherhood and we send her and Jake all the best over the coming months.
Christian and Jack have headed across the pond to visit existing and prospective new broker partners in the US. They attended the WSIA (Wholesale & Specialty Insurance Association) Conference in San Diego. This annual marketplace attracts 5,000 industry professionals for networking and business meetings.
In other news Jorge Matus has launched a new line slip for Contractors Plant & Equipment, making placement more efficient and providing wide coverage for ConsiliumRe clients on a global basis.
September hails the end of summer and the start of autumn.
Autumn is a time full of brilliant colours, where fields are ploughed and new crops planted. Evenings draw in, engulfing us in darkness; we are ready for winter hibernation.
But, the London Market has no plans to sleep.
For many MGAs, September hails the start of the steps to secure capacity for the following year. Busy planning 2023, the team at Mulberry Risk are helping MGAs make sense of the challenging underwriting conditions.
“What are you doing about inflation?”
Measuring past inflation on claims is not an exact science. Understanding how inflation impacts claims on this year’s portfolio and next year is subjective and based on data such as independent indices of costs.
Property policies often have an indexing clause which increases the exposures each year by a set amount. In the past, this has helped mitigate claims inflation on building materials and labour costs. Insurers are increasingly challenging this offset and, in many cases, are also concerned about deep levels of underinsurance.
“What
We are entering a difficult time for many businesses as their costs increase substantially. Many small businesses are still recovering from the impact of Covid-19 and may not survive another substantially challenging period.
I suspect that these SMEs may look to cut costs, including insurance.
Mulberry, and our digital platform Ada, works with MGAs to help them secure capacity. We make sense of the challenging underwriting conditions, delivering performance data which includes claim inflation analysis.
We can’t see the future, but we help our clients make sense of the possibilities. It will likely be Spring 2023 before we can fully understand the complexities of the underwriting conditions. Until then, we have to forecast and do our best to manage our portfolios.
No easy task.
With the waning of the pandemic, Novus now expects to see steady growth of the existing business and an increase in new enquiries, especially from Asia, MENA and the US. In order to increase their presence in Asia, Novus has now gained membership of the Singapore Reinsurers Association, which is the biggest and most attended conference on the Asian Reinsurance calendar.
Novus is preparing for growth by expanding its team, welcoming five new faces. Steve Engeham joined as Senior Underwriter from NexAssure with over 25 years of experience in Novus’ specialist market. William Howe joined as Claims Manager and has excellent technical skills in Auto Warranty. He will join the team on technical audits during the next few months. Anna Last was the third new addition to the team, joining as Underwriting Service Executive. Mark Angel also joins the team, from NexAssure, with 33 years’ experience in Novus’ speciality Classes. Assisting Terrance in the Hong Kong office, and taking over from Florence, will be Jennie Suen. Everyone is pleased to welcome all of the new recruits.
At the end of July, Novus was rebranded to the world and feedback so far from clients has been fantastic. The team is delighted with the rebranding and the website.
Aura has written $17.5m in GWP for the first 6 months of 2022, through its various classes and products. Furthermore, Aura has succeeded in placing $600k of this GWP into Rokstone, reinforcing Aura’s commitment to building its Group relationship and opportunities.
In the second half of the year, Aura launched a new, pioneering Caribbean parametric product. Aura Parametric provides next generation coverage for hurricanes that intersect a pre-defined radius of an insured’s location (typically 40 miles). There is no proof of loss needed, no deductible and loss payment is made within days after an eligible event.
During what should be a quiet summer period in agriculture, the iFarm team still finds themselves extremely busy. Following what the team considered their most successful BIBA conference to date in July, the Livestock Disease product went live. This was the first, standalone quote and buy offering of its kind and the first policies have already been written.
In addition, several other new products are in their final development stage, in conjunction with a key broking partner.
Amongst the team there was also lots of happy news; Helen Ford was promoted to Operations Manager, Motor Underwriter Holly Daniels finally became Mrs Hynes after a two year Covid delay, Sales Manager Shane Mustill married his better half on 13th August with the team in attendance, MD Alun Roberts turned the big 40 (if you didn’t see his epic gift check our socials) and Motor Underwriter Andy Atkinson took part in a 15,000 feet tandem skydive to raise money for The British Heart Foundation. Congratulations to all!
Having now ended the financial year July 21 to June 22, iSure is delighted with their performance for the year and wanted to share some of their highlights.
iSure should hit €17 million GWP and has already written €14.1 million to the end of April. The budget was originally set at €16.9 million and they are on track to hit this. The team has worked very hard to achieve this result.
In addition, income for iSure should hit €2.7 million+, and they have hit 82% of income projected up until the end of April. This puts them on track to hit the 100% target. Loss ratios are very good and hitting targets and the ULR is projected by Mulberry at 52% for 2021.
06Underwriting performance is a key focus for iSure and they have put a detailed training plan in place this year, concentrating on rationale training and risk perception, and case study training to make sure the underwriting performance and discipline continues in a positive trend. They will continue to focus on growing the farm and construction accounts over the
Rokstone Agriculture was delighted to welcome Colin Whitehouse to the team in May as an Underwriting Assistant. Colin previously worked with the existing team at AXA XL as Equine Underwriter. Together, the whole team had a productive few months, which included returning to the World Pork Expo in Des Moines, Iowa in the first week of June and Nicole and Alexandra Choumitsky speaking as panellists for an insurance presentation to the Kentucky Equine Networking Associations. The team were also very happy to host Tony Lawrence and Gavin Dollings on their visit to Rokstone Agriculture on 5-6 July.
The RCRU Casualty team took on global behemoth Zurich, for bragging rights on a massive infrastructure project, and WON. The team, fronted by Dan McCarthy and Michael DiFiglia, stunned the insurance community when it was announced that the RCRU Casualty Value Proposition and service presentation bested insurer Zurich on the MassDot I-495 project; a signature win for the team.
In other news, the RCRU Casualty team has its sights set on expansion, looking to expand their footprint out west. Adding a Senior Underwriter on the west coast will lead to new opportunities and open up new distribution sources.
Finance, working together with HR, have launched the Finance Graduate Apprenticeship Programme. The training programme is provided by Kaplan, and will result in graduates receiving an ACCA qualification.
Operations and IT recently implemented the ‘Digital Product Factory’. Underpinning the factory is a new, agile development framework, which is designed to enable consistent delivery of quality, digital products within specified timescales. The factory will operate under Adam Broom’s superb leadership and is an industrialisation of the existing development process which will elevate digital product development. This is a vital element of digital underwriting strategy / growth plans.
Further to this, the team recently welcomed Husain Al Ghasra to the Group Projects team as a Change Delivery Manager. Husain is based in the Bahrain office, and has a wealth of business change knowledge and experience. Husain will be leading business change and innovation projects across the Group, reporting into James Fairgrieve.
The group offers a very warm welcome to a number of new joiners to the Finance team over the last 6 months: Argee Santillan, Andrea Roche, Christelle Connolly, Nicola O’Neil, Alex Curme, Mark Gibson, Caroline Hill, Charlie Powlson, Aylam Khan, Ken Okae, Rory O’Gorman and Daniel Mote.
Congratulations go to Alex Curme on his promotion to Group Financial Controller.
The Marketing team has been busy continuing to align all Group businesses with the new Aventum style branding. In the last few months, this has included the modernisation of websites and branding materials for iSure Ireland, iSure UK, iFarm, eXponential and Novus Underwriting. Alongside this, it’s been a busy summer after two years away, and marketing has been called upon to organise a number of events. This included hosting two successful parties at BIBA, organising client golfing and Silverstone Grand Prix events, in addition to maximising our visibility and speaker opportunities at the MGAA Conference, where eXponential was a main sponsor.
HRIt’s been another busy period for the HR team as we welcomed dedicated support for learning & development with the appointment of Ciara Maslen. In addition, Nourin Choudhury has joined as HR Coordinator.
As a growing business, reviewing the annual performance objective returns has been a challenge, but it’s been fantastic to chart the progress of so many of the Aventum family over the last year. Well done to all.
Congratulations to everyone at Rokstone, after we won MGA of the Year at the British Insurance Awards!
Hosted by Insurance Post at the Royal Albert Hall in London, the award is recognition for what has been an incredible year for us. So far, the year has included launching new Energy, Marine Cargo, and US Agriculture lines.
Launching back in 2016, it’s taken us just six years
to reach this landmark moment of being crowned the UK’s best MGA, and the even more exciting part is how much sits in the pipeline for the years ahead.
Thrillingly, that was not the end of our Summer of Silverware. We proudly collected the MGA of the Year Award, on 8th September, after making the shortlist at the Insurance Insider’s annual awards ceremony, Insider Honours.
Group Chief Operating Officer Tom Downs is not one to pull any punches, something he proved in June taking part in a charity boxing match. Tom fought Kevin Mitchell, a former 3x world title challenger, British champion and WBC Silver champion at York Hall in Bethnal Green. “I want to personally thank everyone for the kind messages/words of support, and everyone that attended the event. It means a lot,” Tom said.
Team members from Consilium, iSure, iFarm, Securus and Mulberry Risk all descended on Manchester in May for the highly anticipated return of the BIBA conference. We held two parties over the three days we were there, and through a special invite also had a presence at the conference itself on their stand.
Aventum Group hosted 25 guests at the British Grand Prix in July - but it wasn’t just Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen that people came out to see. Aventum-sponsored Ollie Bearman continued his incredible rise up the motor racing ladder in the 2022 season. As a member of the Ferrari Driver
Academy, the 17 year old rising star is competing in the FIA Formula 3 Championship for Prema Racing.
Qualifying sixth on the grid for the feature race in his first FIA3 home race at Silverstone this year, it was an eventful day. Crossing the line in third place, Ollie was just 0.051 seconds behind his nearest rival.
The 2021 Italian and ADAC Formula 4 champion is the son of Aventum founder and CEO David Bearman. Last year, Ollie became the first man to win both the German and Italian F4 titles in the same season and was signed to the Ferrari Driver Academy at the start of 2022.
Ollie had a phenomenal run in his rookie FIA3 season after the summer break scoring more points than his two more experienced team mates and playing a pivotal role in his team winning the constructors championship. The drivers championship went down to a nailbiting finish in the final race of the season with Ollie narrowly missing out on a historic win.
Watch this space, in the next edition we will reveal Ollie’s plans for next year, as he continues his meteoric rise in world motorsport.
Party season is officially upon us. While we might have to wait a few more months before December kicks in, as the temperature drops and the nights get darker, it only seems logical to turn to socialising to combat the seasonal change!
Planning an Aventum Spooktakular on 27th October, the London office is heading to The Alice Bar for a round of informal drinks and some snacks (appropriately creepy attire is of course encouraged).
In November, as England make their starting bid for World Cup glory and look to repeat the success of the Lioness’s this summer, we will be screening England’s first game on 21st November. With a 1pm kick-off scheduled, we will be broadcasting the game
in a number of locations around the office, with drinks, snacks and patriotic face painting also planned.
As the year pulls to a close, we are looking to reignite our Sports+Social gatherings too, making team five-a-side football and quiz nights a more regular occurrence.
Looking to the future, we would like to plan some company wide activities for all that want to join. With some careful timezone coordination we are sure this wouldn’t be out of the question for 2023.
Keep an eye on your inboxes!
With the World Cup just around the corner this winter, we put together our very own mini league. Well done to everyone who took part in the football tournament - the winning team was Team 2; shoutout to Yasir, Jack P, Reece E and Robert M for emerging victorious, with Tom Downs being awarded the golden boot for being the top goal scorer!
That’s right, the Castle Race Series at Hever Castle is back and so far, 21 of the bravest souls in the business have signed up.
Widely billed as the only event to take the mud, sweat and pain of the Royal Marines Commando training, the six or 12k course will see participants tackle some of the toughest obstacles.
A true test of determination, all race finishers get a set of dog tags as physical proof they have taken on the course and survived it. Complete with thick mud runs, crazy cargo climbs, twisting tunnels, slippery slopes, dramatic drops and rigorous river crossings, you are entirely transported to the military world from the second you step into base camp.
Of course, it’s all happening in support of an amazing cause and you can support Macmillian by signing up for a charity place in the race and
committing to fundraise. Alternatively, you can donate via the registration form. It’s all happening the weekend of 15th October so be sure to look out for the pictures!
