Richard Ward has been visiting Lloyd’s offices in Warsaw and Zurich and giving lectures on the topic of risk at the cities leading universities.
Starting in Poland, Richard hosted a reception at the Warsaw Stock Exchange for brokers, clients and cedants. Dr Ludwik Sobolewski, Chairman of the Stock Exchange, introduced Richard who gave a short presentation titled ‘300 years of Lloyd’s on the financial markets – security in conducting business and long-term success on financial markets’.
Richard met key leaders in the industry on his visit including brokers and risk managers. Lloyd’s is a well recognised brand in Poland and developing the business relationships Lloyd’s has with the Polish insurance market is an integral to maintaining a strong presence.
The Polish insurance market is the largest in central and Eastern Europe. The majority of Lloyd’s business in Poland in 2009 was reinsurance and there are a number of niche opportunities given Lloyd’s specialist services and risk appetite.
Risk was the theme of Richard’s talks on the trip and, following his success at the business schools in the US, he visited the Warsaw School of Economics where he gave a lecture on ‘Risk, Opportunity and Leadership’, attended by over 300 students.
In Zurich, Richard met with local brokers and representatives of the Swiss market.
Switzerland was Lloyd’s 11th largest market in 2008, with business evenly split between direct business and reinsurance. Lloyd’s works closely in Switzerland with a distribution network that enables Lloyd’s underwriters to adapt products to individual needs and generally act with great flexibility.
To conclude the visit, Richard gave a lecture to MBA students at Saint Gallen University on ‘Responsible risk taking – lessons from the world of insurance’. He focused on how far Lloyd’s has come from its troubled days and looking at the future of the market.
