Diversifying the underwriter: Nick Line’s goals as chair of Inclusion@Lloyd’s

By Rebecca Delaney

April 9 - (The Insurer) - With the underwriting profession lagging others in terms of diversity and representation, widening the talent pool at junior and mid levels is a key pillar of Nick Line’s tenure as chair of Inclusion@Lloyd’s.

Line, who serves as chief underwriting officer at Markel International, became chair of Inclusion@Lloyd’s earlier this year, succeeding Dominic Christian, who stepped down after 10 years in the role.

Speaking to Sustainable Insurer, Line said that the diversity, equity and inclusion agenda has evolved from an exercise that was done “off the side of the desk” by HR functions into an integral business consideration during this time.

“I spoke to a lot of people who were there at the beginning: Inga Beale, who set the whole thing up, Dom himself, Matthew Fosh, Paul Jardine,” he said.

“Those guys need huge credit for getting the machine moving and creating momentum. What I think Inga did well was she got Dominic, Paul, Matthew, who are big market presences, white men, to get up and talk. That made an impact, because people listened to them.”

With a mandate to look ahead to the next 10 years, Line’s tenure as chair of Inclusion@Lloyd’s includes a focus on improving representation in senior underwriting roles.

“Twenty-eight years ago, you walked into Lloyd's and you'd have thought that only white men could do insurance, which is obviously rubbish. And you might have thought that only women can take notes, which is terrible,” he said.

“It has changed a lot, but the CUO population is still nowhere near diverse enough.”

Fostering diversity in underwriting teams begins with outreach around early careers, including work to promote the London insurance market as a career destination for a broader range of school leavers, apprentices and graduates.

“A lot of companies and syndicates go out to schools and universities to try and promote the industry. We know it's not well promoted enough yet,” Line said.

“One of my goals in three years' time would be for the industry to be a career destination of choice, at least as popular as consulting, banking, accounting, actuarial and others.”

He continued: “That's part of the issue at the moment – it's brilliant that people recommend this industry to their friends, neighbours, nephews and so on. That becomes a bit dominating though, and then that holds back the diversification of the workforce.”

Lateral moves made at the mid-senior career level also provide a wider pool of talent for underwriting teams, including sectors such as law, accounting and engineering.

“As underwriting disaggregates as a job a little, there's room for people to come in and help underwrite. The classic one is cyber risk engineers; that’s a way of bringing people into the industry from other sectors but also subtly moving people from non-underwriting into underwriting,” said Line.

“Historically, I think people have been a bit snooty in underwriting – ‘you can't come in, you don't know any brokers’. That's not crucial. Actuarial, finance and law have a huge opportunity to come into underwriting.”

A third area of focus for improving the diversity of underwriting teams is career returners. Markel International is one of several carrier participants in the career returners programme, a six-month initiative for workers that have taken a career break of 18 months or longer.

“It's really to try and reignite some of those professional thoughts and wanting to come back into a workplace. It's not necessarily aimed at women, and it's not necessarily aimed at mums,” explained Julie Humphreys, head of diversity and inclusion at Markel International.

“We're in our second year, and the first cohort included hires in underwriting and business analyst roles. We offered mentorship, and we also implemented a buddy system, so we find there's a real wraparound of care.”

The first cohort of the programme last year resulted in two hires into Markel International’s tech professional indemnity and marine underwriting teams.

Humphreys added that the firm is looking to launch a global campaign later in the year to examine the current state of diversity and demographic data and where improvements can be made, with an initial focus on the UK and Canada.

“We're a data-led organisation. Unfortunately, our data for our diversity demographics isn't where we want it to be,” she said.

“We do have aspirational targets, but we don't have bar targets and we certainly don't have quotas. It's about the culture of an organisation, so there's no point in keeping targets if you've got a pipeline that is leaking continually.”

Line concluded that measures to roll back federal DEI programmes in the U.S. should not act as a deterrent to (re)insurance firms that implement these initiatives as part of their standard business practices.

“I think it's important to understand what's going on in the U.S. and why, to listen and not have a visceral reaction to it. The whole point of D&I is that it's apolitical. If you get political then you're excluding people,” he said.

“Who doesn't want to run a business where everyone feels they belong and is working to their maximum potential? However capitalist your society is, that is good. The sustainability of the market depends on having a diversity of sources of talent. It's like anything – if you put all your eggs in one basket, it's risky.”