Claims Forum 2010

Mark Cliff

Managing Director, Fortis Insurance

Biography

Mark Cliff joined Fortis Insurance Limited as the Managing Director on 13th October 2008, building on the successful and award-winning general insurance business in the UK and focusing on optimising its position in the market as a leading provider of customer-focused insurance solutions. Mark is responsible for leading the development of Fortis’ core competencies in underwriting and claims management, across the Gloucester and Eastleigh offices, with a continued commitment to distributing via Fortis’ extensive broker network, intermediaries and affinity partners.

Mark joined from AXA Insurance, where he held the position of Markets, Managing Director, with responsibility for all distribution channels, commercial branch operations, as well as customer service and marketing.

Mark has a very strong track record within the Insurance industry with previous senior management roles at Royal and SunAlliance, and Royal Insurance. He had a wealth of knowledge of our market as well as active contribution to the industry, through the Association of British Insurers and was chairman of Polaris, and a member of the Motor Insurer Bureau board.

David Williams

Managing Director – Claims, AXA

Biography

David has over 20 Years experience in General Insurance, roles including Chief Commercial Underwriter at one of AXA’s largest branches, Reinsurance Manager, Casualty Insurance Manager, before moving to claims in 2003.

He was heavily involved in the government and ABI responses to the ‘Liability Crisis’ in his previous role as Casualty Manager, and continues his lobbying work as the insurance industry looks to remove unnecessary costs and delay from the current adversarial compensation process.

David is a non Executive Director of AXA Assistance UK, a Board Member of the CII / CILA Faculty of Claims, and was a Director of Thatcham, the Insurance Industry Motor Vehicle Research Institute for four years.

He is a member of the AXA Group Claims Board and has represented the UK on Asbestos, Health, Pollution and Fraud issues. He speaks regularly at conferences and other events in the UK and Europe on a variety of subjects including most recently improving customer satisfaction, flooding and climate change.

David has also appeared on BBC Breakfast TV, BBC and Channel 4 News, as well as Radio 4’s ‘Today’ Programme, being interviewed on topics varying from Compensation Culture to Business Crime.

David originally hails from Bristol but now lives in Suffolk with his wife Catherine and 2 young sons Evan & Ryan.

Andrew McBride

Claims Director, European Operations, QBE

Biography

Andrew joined QBE in 2005. He has over 20 years experience within the insurance industry, beginning his career with Guardian Royal Exchange and holding various operational and strategic claims roles within that Group of companies. Following its acquisition by AXA in 1999 Andrew held claims management positions within AXA Global Risks and AXA Corporate Solutions and worked within the AXA Group both in the UK and overseas until he moved to Aon in 2002 as Director of Claims Management in UK. In 2005 he was appointed Claims Director of QBE Insurance (Europe), QBE’s company market operation and in 2007 became Claims Director of QBE European Operations. He is responsible for all Claims operations within QBE’s European businesses, with claims team based within the UK and across 17 counties throughout continental Europe as well as in Australia and Canada.

Rob Smale

Claims and Operations Director, Fortis Insurance

Biography

Married with 3 daughters, living in Hampshire. I started my working life as a mining engineer before joining the insurance industry in 1996.

I joined Fortis in 2003.

The Fortis Claims and Operations team numbers 900fte and looks after the claims, intermediary and partner policy servicing and Age Concern sales and service activities. This year we are working with TescoBank to create a claims department dedicated to the new joint venture between TescoBank and Fortis which starts trading at the end of 2010. We have also recently started a partnership with Aioi to provide motor insurance to Toyota GB customers.As Claims and Operations Director in a company selling insurance products via intermediaries and affinity partners one of my main preoccupations is to how to differentiate Fortis. The teams I lead aspire to, and achieve, ambitious levels of service and efficiency. We seek to do "stuff differently" and have created a distinctive “Fortis Claims and Operations Way.” Customers, intermediaries, affinity partners and suppliers confirm this distinctiveness. The key contributor to our distinctiveness comes from embedding processes that help us understand what it is like for customers to pull value from Fortis. My most admired company is Toyota despite their recent difficulties. The Fortis Claims and Operations Way has it’s roots in the Toyota Production System and we see Toyota’s recent plight as a timely reminder of how important it is to stick to what makes you good and not get distracted.

2011 will see Fortis become “Ageas”.

Peter Horton

GI Operations Director, LV=

Biography

Peter Horton is the Operations Director of LV= General Insurance and, as part of his role, he has overall responsibility for LV=’s claims operation of over 800 staff. Peter has been in the insurance industry for 30 years and was a founder of Direct Line, which transformed the entire industry, along with Peter Wood and Martin Long.

Peter is an ebullient character; well known in the industry for his enthusiasm, knowledge and commitment to his job. Peter’s approach is one of focusing and developing people to offer the best possible claims experience to customers.

Peter has made a huge difference at LV=. The claims operation has changed dramatically in the last three years. In 2006 the company had a poor reputation for its claims service, high fraud rates and over 30% staff turnover. LV=’s claims operation is now one of the highest rated in the industry, winning several awards over the last 12 months including a Which peoples choice, a Personal Finance awards for customer service and has 92% satisfaction scores amongst its customers.

Some key initiatives Peter has lead at LV= include:

• Cost savings of £25m by introducing new claims systems and management tools
• A project to bring in-house a major outsourced part of the claims unit which resulted in major cost savings and 150 people recruited from WNS in Bristol

Previous experience includes:

• June 2003 – June 2005: Managing director of claims at RBSI managing three million claims a year, overseeing 8000 staff with an annual spend of £3.4 billion. During his time in this role Peter was responsible for the integration of the Churchill Group and Direct Line Group claims operations under the banner of RBS Insurance.
• 1993 – 2003: Operations director of Churchill. Peter ran several industry-leading projects whilst in this role including achieving lowest average claims cost across the industry, saving several million pounds whilst ensuring Churchill Insurance was publicly acknowledged as providing the best service across the industry.
• 1989 – 1993: Operations Director at Churchill. Peter was a founding director at Churchill responsible for Claims and customer service. During this role he personally developed and introduced the claims system which was widely acknowledged as the best in the market place. Benefits of the system included a lower loss ratio than competitors, enhanced relationships with suppliers and millions of pounds of cost savings each year. He also oversaw the introduction of the first claims unit in the UK insurance industry to have courtesy cars, faxing from screens and no claim forms.
• 1986: Claims Manager at the start up of Direct Line

Andrew Lowe

Commercial Director, Intermediary Channels Household & Life, RBS Insurance

Biography

Andrew is responsible for the home, travel and protection insurance provided by RBS Insurance through partners and brokers including NatWest, RBS, Prudential, Nationwide, Virgin, AA and Saga. Prior to this Andrew spent 5 years managing the Direct Line home insurance business. He has a background in banking and has worked in a variety of roles in Barclays, Lloyds TSB, Flemings and Hill Samuel. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers and was the President of the ifs School of Finance in London for the ten years to 2009. He completed a full time MBA at Cranfield School of Management in 1997.

Ian Thompson

Director – UK Personal Motor Claims, RSA

Biography

Based in the UK, Ian is Director of UK Personal Motor Claims at RSA. Ian’s career with the company spans over 17 years and has seen him work in both Group Centre and UK roles in risk management, corporate venturing and innovation, change programme delivery, business turn-around and operational leadership.

Ian’s current role involves leading a team of over 900 people accountable for delivering motor damage claims management and fulfilment services to more than 1.5m policyholders.

As well as claims, motor engineering and supplier relationship management teams, Ian is also accountable for RSA’s £25m bodyshop business, RSA Accident Repairs Ltd, and the delivery assurance for 500 suppliers across the UK. Ian is also a Non-Executive Director of the Motor Insurance Repair Research Centre.

When not working, Ian enjoys time with his wife and two daughters in and around their south-coast home, catching as many Manchester United games as possible and teaching swimming.

Peter Smith

External Operations Director, Equity Insurance Group

Biography

Peter is responsible for Equity’s outward-facing Claims functions – major account relationships, supply chain, field and offshore services and market interaction.

Prior to this he ran the Claims operational centres for Equity and Hastings Direct.

Previously he was with RSA for 21 years in a variety of senior management roles. These involved leading the Claims centres for large corporate and multinational business and as Programme Manager for strategic changes covering customer and broker experience, systems and processes.

He holds an M.A. in Political Economy from the University of Nottingham.

Pete Tart

European Claims Vendor Management Director, Zurich

Biography

Peter has spent 22 years in the Insurance market specialising in UK Claims and European Claims Vendor Management. Peter joined Zurich Financial Services in 2003 having spent the previous 16 years in Claims & Vendor Management with another Global Insurer having worked through a number of different Claims roles.

Peter now heads up Zurich's European Claims Vendor Management team that manages all Claims Vendors across Zurich’s 13 European business units.

Peter is also a member of the Global Claims Vendor management team that is focussed on developing internal claims supply chain management best practices, procurement and process synergies and global sourcing opportunities.

Roy Hebburn

Divisional Claims Manager (Technical), Allianz Insurance

Biography

Roy has worked for Allianz, and the predecessor company Cornhill, for 43 years since leaving full time education. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Insurance Institute and a Chartered Insurer. His whole career has been within the claims discipline and he is a true Claims Professional. In his current role at Allianz he heads up the Technical discipline with responsibility for claims cost control, technical quality, spend, reserving, counter fraud activity and compliance in the handling of all Personal, Commercial and Direct claims.

Carole Gallagher

Head of Claims, Major Incident Response Planning, Aviva

Biography

Carole Gallagher joined AVIVA in 1989 from the world of broking. Since joining AVIVA she has held a variety of roles across the business including underwriting, trading, operations and claims, both in the UK as well as India.

She is currently Head of Creditor Operations (Payment Protection) and is also Major Incident Manager for AVIVA in the UK.

In her capacity as Major Incident Manager she has managed all the major weather events including the major windstorms, the summer floods of 2007, the Cumbrian Floods in 2009, and the freeze event earlier this year.

Mike Noonan

Head of Strategic Claims Management, QBE

Biography

With 25 plus years experience in the insurance industry Mike heads up the Strategic Claims Team within QBE European Operations based in London and Leeds.

Mike is responsible for claims strategy and best practice across the business. Monitoring change in the legal and claims environment, shaping company policy and informing clients are key functions. Mike also heads up the QBE public affairs programme working closely with the ABI to project insurance industry policy in respect of liability claims matters.

Paula Johnston

General Insurance Operational Strategy Development Manager, Legal & General

Biography

Paula is Head of Claims Strategy for Legal & General's general insurance business. She has extensive experience within the insurance industry having held several senior claims management roles at Legal & General and previously at Royal Insurance.

Paula has implemented various strategic programmes within Legal & General in the last 12 years including a new claims operating model focusing on both internal and external claims solutions to effectively manage spend and enhance customer experience.

Paula is a graduate in History and Politics.

Philip Nastri

Head of Claims Performance, Brit Insurance

Biography

Philip has over 30 years experience in claims at three major insurance brokers, including full Board and non-executive directorships, and chairmanship of a number of Lloyd’s and London Market Claims groups.

His role focuses on implementation of process improvements in claims handling across the three Strategic Business Units of Brit Insurance and managing the company’s strategy and response to fraud. He also has responsibility for production of claims management information.

John Beadle

Counter-Fraud Manager, RSA

Biography

John joined RSA in 2000 where he has been directly responsible for the development of RSA’s UK Counter-Fraud strategy. He has ensured that counter-fraud activity is now embedded as an essential part of RSA’s end-to-end business processes, contributing significantly to the company’s financial results and regulatory compliance as well as establishing RSA as one of the best performers in combating fraud in the UK market. He also become a leading figure in the wider UK insurance industry fraud arena, being an active member of both the Association of British Insurers Financial Crime and Anti Fraud Committees, as well as being at the forefront of cross-industry initiatives, such as the formation of the Insurance Fraud Bureau, which he has led as Chairman since its launch in 2006 until 2009. Previously John enjoyed a successful police career, retiring as a Detective Superintendent from the Serious & Organised Crime Group at Scotland Yard in 1996, before taking up a position as a Director of a large Security and Corporate investigation company, Capital Group plc.

John Higgins

Regional Technical & Strategic Manager, Liabilities Claims, Chartis Insurance

Biography

John is Regional Technical & Strategic Manager (Casualty Claims) for Chartis Insurance UK Limited. He has held a number of managerial positions in his 18 years with the company. John represents Chartis on the ABI High Level Group for Personal Injury and the ABI Occupational Disease Steering Group. He has served on the CJC Clinical Negligence and Serious Injury Committee.

Ursula Coulibaly

Head of Financial Crime Operations, LV=

Biography

Ursula Coulibaly is Head of Financial Crime Operations at LV=. Having completed her Business and Finance studies at Brunel University she spent 4 years in Retail Management focused on security and fraud. In 1999 she joined Churchill Insurance where she assisted with the set up of one of the first dedicated Insurance Fraud teams which included the investigation of new business fraud. During her time with Churchill she completed the Certificate in Fraud Management at Teeside University . In 2007 she joined LV= to start up a Financial Crime function and during her time at LV= she has become a Director of the Insurance Fraud Bureau and was also a former committee member of the ABI GI Anti Fraud Committee and the ABI Life and Money Laundering Committee.

Phil Rawlings

Technical Manager – Motor Claims, AXA

Biography

Phil has worked for AXA Insurance for 30 years. Most of that time has been spent in claims management of a number of varied classes of business. He is currently focussed on strategic cost containment activities in motor claims and the technical aspects of claims handling. This has given him an ideal platform to look at the balance between cost containment pressures and how they impact on relationships with customers and others.

He has recently implemented AXA’s strategic withdrawal from the ABI GTA for credit hire showing significant indemnity savings.

He is active in local Chartered Insurance Institute activities is currently President for Ipswich, Suffolk and North Essex.

Graeme Veale

Claims Operations Manager, Markel Insurance

Biography

Graeme Veale has over 20 years of experience in senior claims management and handling roles, both with leading Lloyd's and international company underwriting operations.

Graeme took up the role of Markel International Claims Operations Manager in June 2008 where he focuses on performance measurement, IT infrastructure and training and development. He previously worked at Catlin where he held the position of Group Operations Manager, and prior to that was at Swiss Re as Property and Casualty Claims Manager. In all recent roles, Graeme has been heavily involved in claims strategy and the project management of various progressive initiatives including training and development.

Mike Hall

Technical Property Claims Controller, LV=

Biography

Mike joined Royal Insurance as an Underwriter’s Assistant in 1989, moving to their Home Claims department in 1993. He joined Churchill in 1995, leaving two years later to work as a Loss Adjuster for Cunningham Lyndsey. Following a brief spell with Independent Insurance as a High Net Worth Surveyor, he re-joined Churchill in 2001 and managed their Special Investigations Unit. He moved into his current role within LV in 2007 and has responsibility for the Technical Home and Commercial claims departments and is closely involved with planning for and managing surge events.

Richard Davies

Board Member, Insurance Fraud Bureau

Biography

Richard Davies is a career commercial fraud investigator, and has experience of leading investigations in the Investments, Life, General and Healthcare insurance sectors. He is currently employed by AXA UK as its Fraud Risk Manager, working with Senior Management to identify and scale fraud risks, and to build strategic prevention and detection controls.

Richard is a member of the Association of British Insurers Anti Fraud Committee. He is a champion of collaborative approaches and was closely involved in the definition and set up of the Insurance Fraud Bureau since the concept was first proposed in 2004. He led the project’s business requirements group through proof of concept and business case development throughout 2005, and in his role as a member of the IFB board, has had responsibility for ensuring that the detection performance of the IFB is optimised.

Tim Humphreys

Policy Adviser, Risk Management and Emergency Preparedness, ABI

Biography

Tim Humphreys is a policy adviser at the Association of British Insurers. Tim is currently leading the ABI’s work on Emergency preparedness and responding to major incidents such as the 2007 floods. He also works on security issues and Business Continuity and is developed the ABI’s policy on fire issues which was launched at a Parliamentary event in December 2009.

Tim is also a Non-Executive Director of the Fire Protection Association, a member of the Cabinet Office Recovery Capability Board and the Business and Community Safety Forum.

Konrad Hochmuth

Senior Fraud Expert, Risk & Fraud Division, INFORM

Biography

Konrad Hochmuth was born in Bonn in 1966. After his studies of Physics, Operations Research, Engineering with degree in Physics, he started his career with INFORM in 1998 as developer for applications based on Fuzzy Logic. Fuzzy Logic is accepted as the best mathematical theory to represent (fuzzy) human expert knowledge.

Since 1999, Konrad Hochmuth has been in charge of the business development of fraud detection solutions in the insurance industry, resulting in more than 35 major installations. Since two years, he additionally supports the INFORM clients in the banking and telecommunication industry and heads the group of rule specialists.

Our customers admire Konrad’s senior consulting services based on his 10 years experience in Fuzzy Logic and fraud detection.

Katie Doyle

Director of Product Marketing, EMEA, Guidewire

Biography

Katie Doyle is the European Product Marketing Director for Guidewire Software. Katie is responsible for developing and delivering product positioning to European markets including France, Germany and the UK. Doyle has extensive experience in many aspects of enterprise software and has held positions in consulting, development and product strategy. Prior to Guidewire, Doyle was a Product Marketing Manager for IBM Websphere Product Center. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Franklin and Marshall College in the U.S.

Alasdair Stewart

Head of Corporate Development, GI, Chartered Insurance Institute

Biography

Prior to joining the insurance industry Alasdair worked at Arla Foods Ingredients in Denmark where he had responsibility for marketing and communications.

He joined Independent Insurance in 1998 and subsequently AXA in 2001, Alasdair was responsible for developing e-Commerce strategies for both organisations and managing implementation.

In 2002 Alasdair took the position of Business Development Director at Aurora Corporate Services, an insurance TPA, and following its successful sale in 2004, he moved to FWD Marketing where he was a Senior Consultant.

Alasdair joined the CII in December 2008, he has overall responsibility for Corporate Relationships within GI and manages the business development team.

Alasdair is married with 2 young children but is bearing up well.

Graham Newman

Sales Consultant, FINEOS

Biography

Graham has spent most of his career in the business application of technology although he began in education teaching both English and Mathematics in comprehensive schools and English as a foreign language at a university in Cyprus. He has covered the car industry, engineering, the oil business and for the last 22 years has worked exclusively in insurance and financial services. He was originating architect for a world-wide Life and Pensions administration system and subsequently its Global Product Manager. In the supply of IT based solutions he has been responsible for business development, consultancy, sales support and marketing for both European and global enterprises.

Renuka Sridhar

Practice Head Claims, Wipro Technologies

Biography

Renuka is practice head in the Insurance vertical of Wipro Technologies, leading the shaping of Wipro’s global offerings in Claims, including package evaluation, buy vs build decision making, claims solution development.

With 21 years of experience and with a blend of both insurance business and IT, Renuka brings along with her sound knowledge of all aspects of general insurance business and processes across multiple geographies both in personal lines and commercial lines. Amongst others, she has been involved in building grounds up applications for large insurers across the globe.