People moves, birthdays and an insurance policy to protect your sandwich from pesky seagulls – what has the insurance industry been up to of late? You heard it here first…
Coachd creation
In August 2024, Evolution Risk Group founder and director Mark Crane launched his newest business venture – professional training and coaching firm Coachd.
Crane’s newest position, which he will perform alongside his day job at commercial broker Evolution, will see him provide sales and career coaching to individuals who wish to rank among the top 1% of the insurance industry.
He will also offer one-to-one and group coaching sessions, as well as sales training that covers a range of business sectors.
Happy birthday Parametrix!
Parametric insurance focused MGA Parametrix celebrated its fifth birthday in August 2024.
The MGA, which provides parametric policies to cover cloud downtime and IT outages, was co-founded in 2018 by chief executive Jonathan Hatzor. The business plan came to fruition after Hatzor realised that cloud downtime was a growing, but unaddressed, risk for businesses.
Hatzor said: ”It has been a very exciting five years. We’ve proven and expanded our technology. We entered and graduated from Lloyd’s Lab, began selling cloud outage coverage backed by Tokio Marine Kiln and other blue chip insurers and launched an analytics division.
”I look forward to more firsts and successes over the next five years.”
Sandwich shop swoops for seagull cover
Scottish cafe Cheesy Toast Shack, based in St Andrews, has started serving optional seagull insurance alongside its sandwiches following numerous attacks where these “quick” and “vicious” birds targeted customers’ food on exiting the shop.
Kate Carter-Larg, co-owner at the Cheesy Toast Shack, said that seagulls would grab sandwiches from up to 30 people a day, which would then leave the business out of pocket upon the provision of free replacement meals.
The insurance, however, gives diners the option of adding a £1 fee to their sandwiches – which cost around £6.75 – in order to secure a replacement sarnie if the original is stolen, with the cafe moving away from providing free replacements.
Treasured memories
In July 2024, more than 60 volunteers from MGA Markerstudy participated in its annual charity Boxathon, creating 10,000 items to include in memory boxes for Sunderland-based charity 4Louis, which supports people affected by miscarriage, stillbirth and the death of a baby or child.
The event took place at the company’s Peterborough office, with the memory boxes then being delivered to hospitals around the UK. The boxes are designed for bereaved families to store special items relating to their child.
Volunteers were joined by Bob and Tracey McGurrell, Louis’ grandparents. Louis, who was stillborn in 2009, is the charity’s namesake.
The Speculator
Lloyd’s of London chief operating officer Bob James was appointed as the new chief executive of Velonetic in August 2024.
He succeeded Chris Halbard, who left the post after a year and five months.
The leadership change followed the latest delay of Lloyd’s digital transformation strategy, Blueprint Two, which is being delivered by joint venture Velonetic.
Phase one of the programme was supposed to launch in June 2024, however the implementation has been further postponed until October 2024.
Will Blueprint Two’s phase one be market ready come October and how will James steer Velonetic to ensure this deadline is hit?
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Writer of the monthly TechTalk section of the magazine and backchat. When not writing can be found doing yoga, at some kind of dance workshop, singing, globetrotting, or baking – not in any specific order.View full Profile
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