Ep 98 Richard Watson CEO Inigo Insurance: Low ego and high collaboration

There are two types of journalist – there are those who really
don’t like or trust anyone they write about and then there are
those that are the opposite and seem to like everyone. I am one
of the latter – my natural bias is to get a positive vibe from
most of the people I interview. Because of this I make sure I try
and balance this inbuilt positivity with a reality check from
others around me. But now I don’t work in a large business any
more it’ll be you the listener who has to help me out. I’m only
mentioning all of this because I found today’s guest off the
charts in the likeability stakes. Richard Watson is the
co-founder and CEO of Inigo Insurance – a specialty insurance and
reinsurance start-up at Lloyd’s. The business is growing rapidly
in this transitioning market and is looking to build something
highly focused that seeks to deploy the best new thinking and
analysis to big-ticket specialty risk. In this discussion we get
right to the heart of what it is like to be building a
differentiated new Lloyd’s franchise in the 2021 market, Lloyd’s
market reform and the applications  of algorithms and other
smart technologies. Richard is a London Market veteran and his 33
years at Lloyd’s Blue-chip Hiscox culminated with an 8-year stint
as its Chief Underwriting officer, so his views carry a lot of
weight. We also examine Richard’s ideas on how to create a new
business that attracts smart, curious and fun people and makes
them want to stay. Richard gives the impression of someone having
the time of their life making the most of a rare opportunity to
put a career’s learning into practice. I had a great time – but
then I always do – so it’s over to you to tell me anything I’m
missing.


LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo - enabling an
enterprise view of exposure: https://www.advantagego.com/


We also thank Claims Direct Access (CDA) for their support today:
https://www.claimsdirectaccess.com/