Intellectual capital seen as key to Bermuda market’s future

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Maintaining and bolstering the talent pool is the key to future prosperity for Bermuda’s insurance market, according a leading executive.

XL Insurance Bermuda president Patrick Tannock said at the Insurance Day Summit in Hamilton this week that access to talent was as important as access to capital, particularly in a rapidly changing world.

“One of the advantages of the Bermuda market is that we’ve always had the concentration of intellectual capital here,” Mr Tannock said.

“We’re currently undergoing a paradigm shift in the rate of change, especially when you look at things like computing power, speed of emerging risk issues. The Bermuda market is well positioned to respond to those kind of things.

“But we have to make sure that we have the intellectual capital and it’s important for us that it’s as easy to access that, as it is to access financial capital.”

The panel discussed efforts to develop more Bermudian talent, but concluded that there would always be a need for overseas talent.

“It’s far cheaper to develop local talent than to import it,” said Charles Dupplin, CEO of Hiscox Bermuda. “I would have thought that every business is trying to attract the finest young Bermudians. I know we are.

“But I think it’s only common sense that out of a 60,000-odd population, the number of people who would be well suited to a career in insurance is necessarily quite small. It remains that Bermuda will always need to seek people from outside.”

Paul Markey, chairman of Aon Benfield’s Bermuda operations, said there were many opportunities for training and working abroad available to Bermudians.

“I think the challenge is to get Bermuda talent to look to opportunities in other parts of the market,” Mr Markey said. “That will be critical going forward.

“The important thing is having the availability of critical intellectual capital at the time you most need it. It’s about the balance between the local population and the expats, but the more experience Bermudians get from other parts of the global marketplace, I think that will augur well for the long-term future.”

The panel was also asked about the significance to the market of the relocation of several CEOs away from Bermuda.

“I think it’s a fact of life in the global environment that people are going to choose where they operate from,” Mr Markey said. “Speaking from a broker’s perspective in Bermuda, I loved having the CEOs on site all the time.

“In the space of about 15 minutes, I could go and see five CEOs and talk about something strategic that was either on our agenda in Bermuda, or that came through from Chicago or London. That’s an amazing, positive element.

“So we’d like to see as many of the senior executives spend as much time in Bermuda as physically possible.”

Mr Tannock questioned how much the relocation of some bosses had actually impacted the effectiveness of the market.

“I have a lot of respect for the CEOs, but the bottom line is that there are a lot of very sophisticated people here who do have some gravitas, and I believe there’s going to be opportunity, as a result of the rate of change and dislocation we are experiencing, to allow them to make meaningful contribution and to advance Bermuda as a jurisdiction,” Mr Tannock said.

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