Opinion: Report highlights post-pandemic leadership reshuffle

This year’s Insurance Times/Insurance DataLab Top 50 Insurers report, published this month, signals that change is clearly afoot within the UK general insurance market as bottom lines bounced back following the unprofitable peaks of the Covid-19 pandemic last year.

Based on data from insight service Insurance DataLab, Aviva has been relegated to second place this year, with Axa coming through the ranks to land the top spot for 2021, thanks to gross written premium amounting to £5.4bn.

This year’s report – which used different methodology from 2020 to also include Gibraltar-based firms and Lloyd’s syndicates – also highlighted a number of senior management swaps that will change the face of insurer leadership ahead of 2022.

For example, former Aviva GI boss Colm Holmes is preparing to take over from Jon Dye at third placed insurer Allianz, while his replacement Adam Winslow has already spent the past few months getting to know Aviva’s broker partners.

Ninth ranked Hiscox is also welcoming its chief financial officer Aki Hussain into the top spot as former chief executive Bronek Masojada confirmed he will be stepping down at the end of the year after leading the insurer for the past 21 years.

Beazley, which came in sixth spot, also said goodbye to boss Andrew Horton, who is heading over to Australia to lead rival QBE. He has been replaced by Adrian Cox, the insurer’s previous chief underwriting officer.

With these leadership changes effective either now or by the end of the year, it will be interesting to see how these insurers’ strategies may bend and flex to accommodate their new chiefs.

Will these successors continue the path trodden by the bosses before them, or should we expect strategy shake-ups for 2022, especially considering the impending January deadline for the last of the FCA’s new pricing rules? Only time will tell.