Ep232 Nick Line CUO Markel International: The Magic Moment where Underwriting Happens

Today’s episode is a real treat. With all Voice of Insurance
podcasts the aim is to be able to get to a level of comfort and
ease with a guest so that what we end up hearing is as close you
can get to listening in on a lively conversation between two good
insurance market friends in a bar.


This week I think we managed it and that’s down to my guest, Nick
Line, the Chief Underwriting Officer of Markel International.


Nick has had a fascinating career, almost all of it at Markel and
one of the forerunner companies that it acquired to make its
entry into the London Market in the late 1990s.


Nick has been through markets hard and soft as well as reserving
cycles plump with redundancy followed by equal and opposite
inverse periods of insufficiency and strengthening.


You could say he has seen most things – and he also seen those
phenomena through different lenses as he started his career as an
actuary and only more recently took a more public-facing role.


Nick’s story is Markel International’s story too- as well as that
of the evolving London and wider international insurance markets
over the last 30 years.


As the market has become more technically sophisticated and
reserving, pricing, capital and risk have to be measured and
controlled, it has become perfectly logical that a CUO might not
necessarily be someone who has written a risk in anger themselves


We cover quite a bit of history but it is the forward-looking
parts of this podcast that are the most rewarding because Nick
combines all the technical smarts one would expect from an
actuary with the communication skills of the best CEOs.


His is a vision of the tech-and-data-empowered underwriter and
global insurance market of the future, but one where the magic
always still happens at the behest of a human insurance
professional.


Markel International has grown quickly in the hard market of the
last few years and this podcast is a record of a business that
has found a groove and is firing on all cylinders.


We made this recording in Markel’s London office only aided by
coffee, tea and water with no beer or wine anywhere to be seen.
But by the end it’s almost as if the champagne were flowing as
tongues and jaws were loosened and expansive ideas were unleashed
on the world.


This makes for a fun listen that is brimming with smart
observations and interesting takes from Nick.


I hope you enjoy this one as much as I did.


We also thank audio advertiser, The Insurance Network (TIN),
organiser of the highly-successful TINtech events series. This
week they are advertising their successful TINtech London Market
event, which will be happening on 4th February 2025.


But before then Data Jam, which is focused on exploring the
implications and opportunities of data, analytics, AI and
automation in the insurance sector, takes place on
28th November at Convene, 133 Houndsditch, London EC3. I’m
going to be there. Get 20% off using the code ‘voice’ when you
sign up Here