Ep133 Jean-Jacques Henchoz: Not yet hitting the glass ceiling

Today’s guest is someone I’m delighted to be welcoming back to
the podcast after just under two years. Back then he was the
relatively new CEO at Hannover Re and some of my questioning
probed what sort of things he might do differently from his
predecessors. Now into his fourth year in charge and Jean-Jacques
Henchoz is the seasoned boss of a reinsurer that has not skipped
a beat since its leadership transition. Very strong growth has
continued and results have been excellent. In the first question
in this podcast I dared ask if Hannover Re’s growth streak could
continue now that the already 3rd largest reinsurance group in
the world is far closer to the number two spot than the number
four is to it. The answer was a very frank “yes for now” and that
set the tone for everything that was to follow. I learned a lot
about a huge range of topics, including views on the Ukraine war,
Florida, resurgent inflation and the prospects for Cyber ILS. I
also discovered how the strong growth environment has created the
conditions that have made Covid reinsurance disputes far fewer in
number than we thought they might have been two years ago.
Jean-Jacques is clearly at the top of his game and I couldn’t
recommend this episode more highly as not only a crystal-clear
view into the reinsurance industry’s standout performer of the
past fifteen years, but a really useful primer for the autumn
conference season and the testing end of year renewals to come.
LINKS We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo:
https://www.advantagego.com/ We also thank this Episode’s
advertising supporter Oxbow Partners https://oxbowpartners.com/