Ferma Forum 2013: Q&A with Ace’s European president

Q: How much are you looking forward to this year’s Ferma Forum, and to Maastricht?

A: It’s good to have Ferma in the Benelux region, one of ACE’s most important and successful European markets. It’s not easy to gather the risk and insurance community from across the continent in one place, but Ferma is one of the few events that achieves this. For our multinational business in particular it’s a great opportunity to get together with clients and brokers – and there are more than 40 of us from ACE here ready to do business.

Q: ACE is a Platinum Partner for this year’s Forum so clearly the business attaches a lot of value to the event — what are your objectives for Ferma this year?

A: We’re proud to work with Ferma as a platinum sponsor once again. Our two themes this year are ‘diversity and development’ and ‘the environment’. To support the first theme, we are sponsoring the Young Professionals Breakfast and the Ladies in Risk Management Lunch.

Encouraging diversity and development is the right thing to do, but critically it also makes good commercial sense because it allows you to attract and retain the best people from the widest talent pool and helps you relate to your customers better.

On the second point, environmental risk is a strategically important theme for us and for our clients right now. We also recognise our own obligations to the communities in We’re proud to work with Ferma as a platinum sponsor once again. Our two themes this year are ‘diversity and development’ and ‘the environment’. To support the first theme, we are sponsoring the Young Professionals Breakfast and the Ladies in Risk Management Lunch.

Q: What are likely to be the key themes among risk managers for the event?

A: We expect the question of global compliance to be top of mind – the global regulatory maze continues to get more complex post-crisis and we hear our clients’ concerns about designing effective global programmes that are compliant and really deliver under pressure. We also know that the risk management function continues to evolve at many companies and that many risk managers are being asked to do more with less in today’s climate. So we expect service to be on the list for discussion – how can insurers innovate to make their clients’ lives easier? At ACE we are putting a lot of investment into our Worldview technology platform and putting claims more centrally at the heart of the client relationship, so I look forward to the discussion in this area.

Q: You are hosting a young risk managers’ breakfast, how important is it to engage with this group?

A: It’s hugely important. At ACE, we have just recently launched a new graduate programme for our European multinational practice so we can bring new thinking into the business. We need to keep the best new talent fl owing into risk management and insurance, and that’s an important element of ACE’s ‘diversity and development’ theme this year.

Q: ACE is also holding a women’s lunch event. The risk management profession continues to be dominated by men — why is that, and is the demographic starting to change?

A: Financial services has long been too monochrome, and I think it’s true of risk management too. But yes, I see things starting to change, compared with when I started out in the industry. There is more to do, and it’s certainly something we are alert to at ACE – as I said earlier, it just makes good business sense. We do work hard to have a good balance of people and cultures across our management team in Europe, and we recently appointed our third female country president, Nadia Cote in France, so I hope we are making progress.

Q: You have attended a number of Ferma Forums in the past, what is your most memorable moment from previous events?

A: Even as an Arsenal fan, I really enjoyed Aon’s event in Stockholm last time, when some of the most famous Manchester United players took part in a Q&A session!