Young achiever of the year

Winner

David Lawlor - Allianz Cornhill

At the age of 26, David has progressed from an apprentice panel beater to one of Allianz Cornhill's top motor engineers. Within just two years he has been responsible for significant cost savings, not only from his team in Birmingham where repair costs run at £100 below average and productivity is 25% above the norm, but also through promoting and developing the nationally adopted best practice guide for video imaging.

David's main responsibility is negotiating the correct methods of repair and repair costs with approved and non-approved repairers. This is a key factor in determining the overall profitability of Allianz Cornhill's motor account.

David's talents are not solely practical. In addition to City & Guilds and NVQ (Student of the Year) qualifications, he achieved top marks in Allianz Cornhill's Estimator Programmes and is currently engaged in study for his HNC in Automotive Engineering & Management. He is also a full member (exam based) of the Institute of Automotive Engineer Assessors.

Allianz Cornhill recognise the contribution David makes to the organisation and have appointed him to be the youngest ever member of their motor engineering services strategic planning group.

David is a fine example of the young blood that the industry needs to take it forward into the future. As a sector of the insurance industry that is often overlooked by newcomers, David has clearly proved that motor engineering is indeed an area that has much to offer in terms of a career.

Highly commended

Nicholas Davies - Brit Insurance

Recently promoted to class underwriter, war and terrorism, UK-based general insurer, Brit, put Nicholas Davies forward for this award because of the energy, enthusiasm and expertise he has brought to its US and international property division since he joined the group in 1999.

A graduate in war studies from King's College London, Nicholas started in the insurance industry as a broker with Bain Hogg International before moving to the US property underwriting team at Ace in Lloyd's and then Brit.

The youngest of five underwriters in the US and International property team, Nicholas has not only delivered real business development in 15 US cities in just 12 months, but has also been responsible for a broad spectrum of valuable research. This ranges from preparation of the team's US and international property business plan to a global terrorism briefing, daily threat assessments of potential hot spots such as Colombia, Kenya and Yemen and daily tropical activity advisories during the hurricane season.

At an industry level, Nicholas's contributions include developing the mold exclusion wording which is now being increasingly adopted by Lloyd's businesses and involvement in market workshops and ILU lectures on such key issues as mold, terrorism, natural catastrophes and leadership.

Nicholas is currently completing his ACII and is also a key member of the team that devised Brit's graduate mentoring scheme.

Andrew McMillan - Kwik-Fit Insurance Services

Andrew joined Kwik-Fit Insurance at its inception in 1995 and has built his career through a multi-disciplinary approach and a determination to succeed. After joining the sales department, he has spent time in customer research, underwriting, insurer relations and finally marketing.

This varied career path demonstrates Andrew's willingness to broaden his horizons and work in areas where he is most needed. His experiences to date have given him a unique insight into customer behaviour, the product range, insurance underwriting and the back-office systems. Andrew was instrumental in developing an industry-leading management information suite for the insurer panel.

Following his successful completion of the company's executive development programme, Andrew was appointed to his current role as marketing manager in August 2002. In his new role, he has played a key role in promoting the insurance brand through the Kwik-Fit centres, resulting in increased customer traffic. He has also made changes to the brand strategy ensuring consistency of approach. In addition to all this, Andrew is studying for an MBA.

Nick Roberts - GAB Robins/Robins Claim Solutions

GAB Robins & Robins Claim Solutions nominated Nick for this award because of his flexibility and 'can do' attitude in building and launching the worldwide third-party administration scheme for McDonald's. Nick had a 90 day challenge to:

- train 20 worldwide GAB Robins teams within 30 days;

- provide ongoing management of the scheme, across 71 countries and involving over 10,000 restaurants;

- ensure that McDonald's brand values and ethos were reflected in all transactions;

- document all, processes, procedures, requirements and contacts and encapsulate into a claims handling manual.

An essential element of the service that Nick provided to McDonald's was the unique collation of worldwide data - a first for McDonald's. Accurate, meaningful risk and financial data was provided through the deployment of EYE Risk.

Nick has consistently demonstrated the outstanding enthusiasm and diligence that is needed to implement leading edge risk-related services on a multinational basis. He has risen to the challenges involved with multicultural brand protection.

Nicola Porter - The Broker Network

Nicola Porter joined The Broker Network in November 1998. Her subsequent progress and achievements have been quite exceptional.

Her initial role was new member recruitment, a role that required a high degree of focus, gritty determination and excellent sales skills.

Following the birth of her son Thomas in early 2000, Nicola required a role that did not necessitate travelling some 40,000 miles a year. Nicola took her first management position with responsibility for the network's service delivery to its members. The role also involved assisting the management of the network's relationships with insurers, so all aspects of her responsibility were vital to the continued development of the business.

In 2002, Nicola headed the management team that launched Broker Network Underwriting, a range of bespoke delegated authority facilities for network members' exclusive use. She was appointed to the network's operational board in March of the same year.

In December 2002, the Broker Network became the first network to receive Lloyd's accreditation, and more recently launched its own London market operation, Broker Network London Markets. In August of this year, Nicola was appointed to the board of Broker Network London Markets with primary responsibility of ensuring the successful development of this new company.

Not content with this workload Nicola has enrolled to study for an executive MBA at Lancaster University from November this year.