Rising stars
“Some of the older attitudes of insurance being boring are starting to fall away and young people are starting to view it as a rewarding and fulfilling industry.”
Name:
David Mann
Company: XL Re Job:
Specialty casualty manager
Timeline: November 2010: Specialty casualty manager, XL Re
September 2006: Broker/analyst, Guy Carpenter
September 2003: Special projects assistant, Markel International
2002: Graduate trainee, Horizon Portfolio Management
Describe your career so far and current role. I joined XL Re as an underwriter and progressed to manager of the specialty casualty department where my team underwrites a portfolio of general liability and professional lines reinsurance of Lloyd’s syndicates and London based companies.
Why did you choose the re/insurance industry? I think like a lot of people I did not choose reinsurance but reinsurance chose me. Exiting university with a degree in geography and no real direction I looked at various career paths and then began working in an insurance run-off company and since then have worked in claims, broking and latterly in underwriting which I have thoroughly enjoyed and which has given me great exposure to many tenets of risk and the insurance industry.
Do you think the industry is attractive to young professionals? I think the industry is attractive to young professionals looking for a varied career with lots of options. I hope that some of the older attitudes of insurance being boring are starting to fall
away and young people are starting to view it as a rewarding and fulfilling industry to work in.
Do you think the re/insurance industry offers good opportunities and career development to young professionals? It does offer good opportunities for career development. Risk is constantly evolving and the industry needs bright people with new ideas to help understand and mitigate risk in the future.
What are your aspirations for the future? To continue on the path I have started on, working in a high calibre company with like-minded people and hopefully being innovative and adapting to the future challenges and changes the industry faces.
If you had chosen a different profession/career path, what would it have been? A good question, probably something equally as risky as being a reinsurance underwriter, probably an astronaut.
May 2015 | INTELLIGENT INSURER | 33
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