What does your arrival at Dual mean for the company’s plans and capabilities in CEE?
I will be further strengthening Dual Asset CEE which already has a team based in Warsaw with two senior underwriters and underwriters covering Slovakia, Hungary and Romania from London. My role will be to expand business and grow their teams, building on the strong performance of Dual over the recent years on transactional risk insurance. Although I will be based in Prague, I will be covering CEE. Dual are already one of the market leaders but we want to strengthen that dominance over the next 12 months to be the leading provider of transactional insurance products in the region, offering fast and proactive responses to queries and local underwriting capabilities.
What motivated the switch from law to insurance?
I’ve spent 27 years being a lawyer and felt it was time for a change. The opportunity at Dual came up and as Dual had been a client of mine — and I knew many of the people within the company and its strong credentials — it was a good fit for my next career. I’m thoroughly looking forward to helping them expand their network. Obviously the contacts that I have should help in this respect.
You’re no stranger to bear markets…are there any silver linings to the timing of your start?
Well, markets are certainly quieter so I should have a bit extra time to get my feet under the table and refresh contacts without a sudden flood of work. That said, there are still plenty of deals around that are about to start that we are looking at. In particular, there are quite a few corporate/M&A deals that we are looking at with potential clients where we will provide transactional risk cover. So there will still be plenty for the team to underwrite over summer.
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