Diary of an Insurer: Gallagher's Andrew Corbin

Monday

Each day starts with a strong coffee (or two). I’ve also recently started doing morning stretches every day in an attempt to avoid future injuries, but have come to rely on this short session to get myself in the right state of mind. I’ve had issues with mental health in the past and it really does wonders for me.

At the time of writing, I’m in the midst of the fourth quarter renewal season. As a broker and account technician, I represent a fairly broad portfolio of aviation clients and this time of year is full of calls, negotiations and spreadsheets. Lots of last minute scrambling is inevitable despite our best intentions to get ahead of the curve.

Every Monday evening I have a kickabout at a local astroturf with friends, so my Monday meal is early and light. Exercise on a Monday really helps to put over-indulgent weekends behind me.

Tuesday

On Tuesdays I tend to go into the office. I have a strength-based workout (and stretch, of course) before heading into town.

On this particular Tuesday we have our Brokers Meeting in which every individual with an interest in the market side of our job will contribute stories on their recent renewals as well as share knowledge on risk appetites and personnel changes amongst our trading partners.

My afternoon involved a catch-up call with a Nordic client to update them on our progress on the renewal and to explore their options based on the upcoming turbulent market climate.

There has recently been a large increase in the reserve relating to the large claim made by Boeing as well as huge market uncertainty surrounding the potential for a multi-billion dollar claim related to the assets involved in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. We have therefore had to work hard to keep a finger on the pulse and advise our clients accordingly.

Wednesday

On Wednesday mornings I will go for a quick run.

I generally go into the office on average half the time on Wednesdays, depending on meetings or whether it is beneficial to sit with my team. I manage one individual and it is often best to teach them in person.

As part of my role as chair of the race and ethnicity network (called Mera) at Gallagher, I have been doing a series of short presentations to various regional offices up and down the country.

My presentations will summarise the work that we do and will generally have a call to action in the hope to get more volunteers to lend their time and effort. This week’s call was with our Glasgow office who have been making great strides in this regard.

The insurance industry has inherited a legacy in which we have not employed from a diverse range of talent and a lot of work is required to affect positive change. It is simply not optimal that we do not fairly represent the communities in which we reside.

It is quite amazing that there is such a stigma against insurance. When thinking of careers, it is not a household name like accountancy, law or banking. Despite it having lower barriers to entry and lucrative opportunities, it does not pull from a broad or diverse pool of talent.

At Gallagher we are trying to change that by building stronger relationships with schools, universities and charities across the UK.

I love cooking and will try to find time to cook a decent meal at least a couple of times during the week. On the menu this Wednesday was a stir fry of crispy pork, cabbage and chard with loads of chilli and garlic plus oyster sauce and soy, done Thai-style, with rice and a crispy fried egg.

The original dish is called Pad Kana Moo Krob and is done with Chinese broccoli instead of Western veggies. I’ve got a food page on Instagram but I’m not shameless enough to plug it here.

Thursday

This Thursday was particularly busy and didn’t have any time to fit in exercise. Every Thursday is our designated team day in the office so I get to catch up in-person with (at least most of) our team of 10.

We had a policy renewing the next day and had been provided with the renewal information quite late on in the process. We had to really rush it around the market, attempting to finalise our negotiations and get the best deal possible. We just about got it done in time thanks to some helpful underwriters and excellent broking, naturally.

On the same day I had two long calls as part of my role as chair of Mera. One was the bi-monthly inclusion and diversity steering committee, which is a 90-minute run-through of each workstream with updates on broader inclusion and diversity initiatives across Gallagher.

The other call was our Mera committee monthly meeting in which we progress actions within our various workstreams. In December, we looked back on all the work that had been done and laid out our intentions for 2023.

In addition to our desire to recruit diversely, we focus on executive engagement, community work, building relationships with industry groups such as iCan and celebrating different cultures via initiatives such as Black History Month.

In the evening I attended a Christmas party hosted by the AIG Airports and Products team. Part of why I enjoy my job is that I genuinely enjoy socialising with other people in the industry.

I’m lucky that my role is both market and client-facing, giving me plenty of opportunities to network in addition to the network I have through my inclusion and diversity work.

Friday

Fridays I try to always work from home. If there is a silver lining from the pandemic, it is removing the ludicrous stigma that work can’t be done from home. I also unashamedly love my weekends. I immensely enjoy the feeling of shutting my laptop at the end of a Friday without the need to commute, so I can immediately end my week and get into my Friday night.

I’ll start my day with a run on a Friday morning.

This Friday involved a few tidy-ups following the renewal we completed the previous day, before progressing the various other renewals I was working on in advance of year-end.

iCan, the multicultural insurance industry group within the Inclusion@Lloyd’s umbrella, ran an iCan Connect session in the middle of the day on the topic of focussing on your own career progression as a equality, diversity and inclusion network leader.

The session was run by the founder of Empower Development, Sam Ridgewell, and was a very welcome break from fourth quarter renewals.

At the end of the day, I close my laptop and look forward to a weekend catching up with friends, largely revolving around food.