Jason Harris: Connectivity, people and agility are the key pillars for QBE International

Originally founded in 1886 by James Burns and Robert Philp, global insurer QBE got the initials that form its name from the subsequent merger of Queensland Insurance, Bankers’ and Traders’ Insurance Company and Equitable Life and General Insurance Company in 1973. 

Since then, the company has expanded across the globe and now operates divisions in Australia, North America and – headquartered in London – Europe and Asia. 

That London-headquartered division – QBE International – is now QBE’s largest by gross written premium (GWP). And it has continued to expand significantly in recent years. 

Since 2019, this part of the business has nearly doubled in size – from GWP of $4.4bn (£3.46bn) to around $10bn (£7.9bn) this year.

In its most recently published financial results, for the six months ending 30 June 2024, QBE International achieved $5.7bn (£4.5bn) of GWP for this reporting period, alongside a profitable combined operating ratio (COR) of 89.2%.

And, on 4 December 2024, it also picked up the prestigious Commercial Lines Insurer of the Year Award at the annual Insurance Times Awards. 

So, what is driving this success? Insurance Times sat down with QBE International’s chief executive, Jason Harris, to find out.

A different approach

Harris initially entered the workforce as a qualified geologist in the 1980s and spent the best part of 10 years working on oil rigs in the North Sea, Norway and Holland. 

But, when offered a permanent transfer to North America, he instead decided to return to the UK and join some friends at an engineering firm in the City that provided oil and gas risk presentations to underwriters, brokers and Lloyd’s syndicates. 

This eventually provided a somewhat unorthodox entry into the insurance industry, which Harris calls “probably the luckiest and most fortunate accident of my life”. 

His journey to QBE saw him hold a variety of leadership roles at major insurers – including Chubb, AIG and XL Catlin – before joining the Australian insurer in 2020 to succeed retiring chief executive Richard Pryce. 

He says: “I joined [QBE] during [the Covid-19] lockdown, so I had to learn how to run a company remotely. But, what was good in hindsight was that, although I was joining a new organisation, everyone else was learning [how to work remotely] too, so there was no disadvantage to joining as a new chief executive.” 

The business has grown significantly under Harris’ tenure and although he admits that “all [insurers] have benefited from the rate market”, he adds that there has been “more to it than that”. 

He explains: “QBE has long had a reputation, particularly in Lloyd’s, as a market maker. Clearly, my predecessor did a fabulous job and a key goal was to keep the good things from his era. But, when he retired, it was time for a different approach.

“We’ve been working quite extensively on culture and on making sure we connect the organisation much more deliberately – connecting the dots not just within this division, but between AusPac, North America and international, to share and leverage best practice for the benefit of the total organisation.” 

UK growth

As well as trying to leverage all the moving parts of the organisation for the benefit of the whole, Harris has also overseen an expansion in the business’ UK regional footprint, which the firm separates from its London market activity. 

Harris says: “You can’t undo the fact that we write $3bn (£2.4bn) of business in Lloyd’s – that London centricity is a given – but, when I think about balancing portfolios, then it becomes about regional growth.

“We’ve grown the UK business really well over the last couple of years by launching new products and really spending time there. We’re number five in the UK regional market, so we’re meaningful – it’s a $2bn (£1.6bn) business for us.” 

QBE has an office in Chelmsford, which it uses to create a distinction between its London wholesale and retail books, but Harris says the strategy for both marketplaces remains the same. 

He explains: “We have a strong reputation for operating in the same way [in the regions] as we do in London. It’s a relatively simple model, but we hire people we can trust and then don’t ask them, for the most part, to refer to London or anywhere else. 

”When a broker or a customer engages with our team – be that in Glasgow, Leeds, Manchester or any other location – they’re talking to people who can make a decision and do it well, with good products and a great service ethic.” 

As part of this regional strategy, the insurer opened its new Leeds office in September 2024, which Harris notes is now QBE’s second largest location in Europe after London. 

He says: “Leeds is a bit of a UK hub for us and we’ve grown it by about 40% since 2022, where we now have about 450 people there.

”It’s a great talent pool and you can hire some fabulous talent up there, but we’ve also put senior people up there because that’s how we think about the regions.” 

Emphasising agility

QBE came in at sixth place in Insurance Times’ most recent Top 50 Insurers report – published in October 2024 – but, despite its considerable GWP bulk, Harris is keen to emphasise the firm’s agility and ability to “pivot quickly”. 

He explains: ”The most important thing for the world we all live in is agility.

“If I was to sit here and say I had a crystal ball for what’s going to happen in three years’ time, then that would be delusional. But our flat structures really open up a safe space to share ideas and views, which stops you getting things wrong. 

”What we’re good at is pivoting, moving and changing direction quickly if we see something in the market that is either a risk or an opportunity.

”We call that deepening the core – dropping some of our capabilities into different distribution outlets. You’ve got to be crystal clear about what it is you’re doing and, for me, it’s a much more appropriate strategy to anchor on to something we’re already good at and try to find different channels to market using those skills.”

An example of this agility is QBE’s recent “heavy investment” into its sustainable energies unit, which Harris calls “an appropriate adjunct to [QBE’s] natural resources business”.

He adds: ”It’s not about being totally wedded to what you do because life is moving on – but there’s plenty of opportunity for us to expand without doing new things in new markets.” 

Personal and passionate

Underpinning all of Harris’ plans is a ”very personal and passionate interest in people, teams, recognising talent and giving people opportunities”. 

Harris says he is a big proponent of what he calls “squiggly careers” that eschew the traditional pathway of only ever aspiring to take your boss’ job, in favour of “having people move around the enterprise from function to function”. 

Particularly for those at the beginning of their careers, Harris says that a lot of staff now “choose to work in an organisation for different reasons”. 

For Harris, the benefit of becoming “an employer of choice” for talent is because “nothing is a substitute for good people” in business.

He explains: “It’s no longer purely about compensation. It’s more about culture, attitude towards environmental, social and governance (ESG) [factors], benefits, values and the all round approach to employment. 

“If we continue to employ those worldly people who think about the world around them – community, society and business challenges – and not just a line of business, then we will be more relevant to our customers.” 

A committed approach to inclusion from the top of the organisation is also vital, so that employees feel valued, says Harris.

He personally chairs the insurer’s Inclusion Forum – which was established in 2019 – and, under his tenure, QBE equalised maternity and paternity leave in January 2023, begun to bring in school children for work experience and has been publishing its ethnicity pay gap data since July 2021. 

Harris says: ”I don’t pretend that we’ve achieved all the things we want to achieve, but one of the things I’m very proud of is that the actions we take are more indicative of what we aspire to be, rather than necessarily a target or a quota – which isn’t the point. 

”The point is, do our underlying behaviours support our DNA? It’s these multiple activities that add up to a reputation that affects the way we all work together.

“And the organisation has got to want to do this too, not just me. But sponsorship and what we call allyship – actually being advocates for change across an organisation at all levels – are vital.”