EXECUTIVE BIO

Vinicio Cellerini was appointed Global Head of Customer and Distribution Management for Zurich Commercial Insurance in December 2018. Vinicio joined the Zurich Insurance Group in 1986 as a Property Underwriter and since then, has held various roles within the organisation. In January 2005, he was promoted to CEO, Global Corporate Italy before being appointed CEO, Global Corporate Switzerland in 2010. In August 2012 he moved to the UK as CEO of Global Corporate UK (which later became Head of Commercial Insurance UK).

Martin De Laubadere

TITLE: HEAD OF UNDERWRITING FOR SPECIALTY LINES

COMPANY: ZURICH FRANCE

Martin de Laubadère is Head of Underwriting for Specialty Lines.

He joined Coface in 2006 in the Finance Department, after a postgraduate degree in Risk Management from the University of Paris IX Dauphine. He joined AIG in 2010 as Financial Lines Underwriter before joining the management team of Zurich France in 2018.

Market recommendations to encourage change

Zurich’s goal to contribute to a global movement that is centred around sustainability has led the group to partner with a range of marketplace players. Stasinski says: “Our main clients remain large international companies. But we have developed capability and expertise, in terms of risk assessment, and are ready to propose solutions for the middle market.

“In France, for example, we started to develop an MGA proposition four years ago with a partner named Etik and Tetris, dedicated to the construction sector. To date, it has been a successful development and, obviously, it is a global initiative. We analyse this type of opportunity on a caseby-case basis.”

As part of this initiative to drive change and better sustainable practices on a global scale, Zurich Insurance has also partnered with the World Economic Forum to increase the scope of its holistic strategy. “Risk is clearly our business at Zurich,” says Cellerini. “To understand it, we look at current trends and how they have developed over time. We analyse data, and we partner with prominent experts, drawing on the experience of more than 800 risk engineers across the world.

He continues: “Zurich champions a holistic approach to risk management by helping businesses understand the triggers and the trends to look out for alongside how to prepare for possible consequences. By helping people understand how global risk interrelates, we give customers and communities the opportunity to plan ahead with confidence and work towards a brighter future. We do this because that’s who we are, and that’s why we strategically decided to partner with the World Economic Forum.”

Technology and innovation driving change

Martin de Laubadère, Head of Underwriting for Specialty Lines at Zurich France, says technology has been key in facilitating a more sustainable approach to products and services, as well as the way the group operates.

“The integration of new technology is key for us within the client experience as we see it; it’s true for Zurich France, it’s true for the group. The main objective behind this is to propose simple solutions, for us to be more intuitive for our clients and the corporations. Individuals working for these corporations will benefit from these services.”

He says the importance of new technology has clearly grown over recent years, with it seen as a competitive advantage that Zurich Group is happy to heavily invest in. The use of data is critical, but so is the company’s approach to it and the digital platforms that process said data.

“At Zurich, we don’t limit our relationship with our clients to their difficult times, when a claim or a need for reimbursement happens; it goes way beyond that, as we see the relations with clients as broader and consequently being alongside our clients to accompany them much more in advance and manage not only the prevention of risks, but also the identification of impacting, meaningful trends.”

The core goal is to be as transparent as possible so that facts and data on risk and resilience can be shared as part of the holistic strategy. “In France, this aspect of digitalisation is one of the three big pillars of our strategy for 2023-2025. The objective we want to achieve is to have a direct impact on our clients, bringing more services.

“Our A&H line of business provides the capacity to propose online certificates for clients for direct access. I also want to emphasise the importance of international programmes for our clients: we invest a lot in these aspects to ensure programmes can be delivered very efficiently and smoothly for the client.”

Future trends in the insurance market

The next few months for the global insurance industry will see a number of shifts and trends – one of which is an overall increase in the number of claims being made.

Céline Garnier says Zurich France has had dialogue with reinsurers regarding autoliability trends from a claims’ perspective: “What we’ve seen is that amount doubled year-on-year from 2019 to 2021 to reach more than €200mn indemnity for one loss. Risk management is absolutely critical in managing this trend, but discussions about the ways contracts are structured and how the insured are made aware of the exposition and tools that we have in the insurance industry are also essential.”

She continues, underlining that the Global Risks Report outlines the environmental risks that are seen in the short-term and longterm as one of the most important issues by leaders in general. “This obviously has an impact in terms of responsibility, and from a political responsibility, we see a clear switch in corporate responsibility, and behind that that’s obviously the directors and officers.”

Martin de Laubadère adds that, from a D&O risk perspective, the evolution of the regulation will have a big influence on the global insurance industry in 2023. “We at Zurich clearly have a lot of D&O expertise and leadership. The intention of the group, globally – but our intention, also, in France – is to maintain our presence to accompany our clients, bring our expertise, and share that with them, working together to face this risk and be more resilient as the future unfolds.”

“Other challenges will be the CAT evolution due to climate change and the necessity to adapt our insurance proposition with this evolution,” adds Denis Stasinski. “Risk assessment is and will remain key to properly understanding the impacts to help our customers adapt their business model.”