Ep180 Craig Kingaby CEO Meridian & Mark Heath CEO Acies: Playing our own game
The older we get the more we lament the passing of the great personalities in the marketplace. Over an after-work drink we tend to reminisce about the entrepreneurial characters of old and how we wish there were more of their kind today. I know I do.Well, today’s guests are proving that this is a myth caused by old age because they are some of the most singular insurance people I have had on the programme to date.Craig Kingaby CEO of Meridian (Left) and Mark Heath CEO of Acies MGU (Right) both have vast London market and international insurance and reinsurance experience but what the Meridian business are trying to achieve is something different and a little special.For instance, they are trying to build a London-based diversified specialist insurance group, but one that is almost sitting outside the market. They have big growth plans and are moving fast but are doing so because the opportunity is in front of them, not because they have to satisfy the ambitions of impatient investors and hit target numbers. They don’t have an eye on an exit, but instead on building a generational business which will stop growing if it ever hits conflicts that might affect its clients.They are largely self-funded and wholly management controlled and they have even decided to spend a lot of time building their own technology platform. I told you that they’re a bit different. They’re also ideal interviewees because they can sign off on their own quotes.So what follows is one of the most frank exchanges about how to build a differentiated broking and MGA business I have ever had. This is a duo that has spent decades learning how things should and shouldn’t be done and becoming experts in the insurance game – the thing is that now they have decided to play their own game. Craig and Mark are great communicators and I think they are onto something interesting, so listen on for a very refreshing and challenging chat about what this new game is all about.Mark speaks first.NOTES: Craig mentions a Marcus at insurance placement platform, Whitespace. That’s Marcus Broome, its chief platform officer. LINKS:We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo:https://www.advantagego.com/