business & finance profile adventure
John Harrison’s
Poles Apart
by Frankie Hatton
One of the things that often strikes me about Gibraltar is the absolute diversity and cross section of people we seem to be home to. I’ve interviewed people who have spent virtually their whole lives on this six kilometre square lump but at some point in that time they went off for a few months or a couple of years, somewhere that seems almost at odds to their existence here. So it is with my profile this month, the man is John Harrison, probably a familiar name to many not least because his family have been in the insurance business here since 1960. John’s trip? Sailing maybe? Fishing off Sotogrande harbour? Okay, more demanding, how about the Marathon de Sables? Worse. Yes, worse. How does reaching the North AND South Poles grab you! Got your attention have I? John was actually born in Fraserburgh, Scotland but it was his grandfather’s business that brought him to Gibraltar. Originating in the UK’s Midlands his grandfather began Warwick Insurance Company and a branch opened here in 1960 called Rock Insurance. The family spent many times on holiday in Gibraltar and eventually, in the late 1970s, John himself came here to work for four years at the company. John spent four years training with Lloyd’s in London and eventually joined a company called Johnson & Higgins in Bermuda. As the Captive Insurance Manager John was in the Bermuda and the Cayman Islands for about four years before moving back to Exeter as a director of a commercial insurance brokers in the area. After years of working for other people, including family, John decided to branch out on his own and in 2000 he started the Ibex company as a response to his perception of an opportunity for growth in the ex-pat insurance market. The company now employs over 80 staff members with offices in Gibraltar, a branch in Spain and a
GIBRALTAR MAGAZINE • MAY 2009
John Harrison — yes, really ... he’s in there!
new office opening in Lisbon. Being innovative in the way the company operated opened doors in Europe, notoriously difficult to do, including selling insurance through other companies. In Gibraltar, the Managing Director is Richard Hill, the policies are sold through Trafalgar Insurance Brokers and the office here is staffed entirely by local people with local knowledge and managed by Bill Pisani. The Spanish side has David Whitmore as the Managing Director and again is staffed by local bi-lingual people. I asked John how things were
“Of course with the kind of people we are it wasn’t going to be a beach trip or a weekend in Weymouth. After a bit of discussion and research we decided to canoe along the Cunene River in Angola”
mapping out with the current economic climate. “Well we aren’t sitting still, we’ve taken over two new businesses recently, one in Spain and the other in Tenerife. There are other negotiations ongoing outside Spain, as well as the possibility of becoming brokers for Lloyds being a target for the future.” Having a rough gist of where John came from and what he does I couldn’t help thinking to myself, “Where did he get the urge to walk to the poles?” So I asked him. “I’ve been taking trips for years with a group of friends. It all started about 15 years ago. We were sat around and someone suggest going on a group trip. Of course with the kind of people we are it wasn’t going to be a beach trip or a weekend in Weymouth. After a bit of discussion and research we decided to canoe along the Cunene River in Angola”. “Wasn’t that dangerous?” “It had its moments but we wanted to do things that are different, more challenging. Not extreme but I suppose in that direction. Most of our trips have been in Africa. It is still largely unexplored and natural.