Aviation War to Multi-Class Specialty - The Political Risk Podcast

Our CEO, Bruce Carman, was recently interviewed for The Political Risk Podcast with host David Benyon, discussing a number of topics including our recent entry into the Space class, employee culture and our in-house technology.

It was Bruce’s second appearance on the podcast, marking the prestigious 50th episode, and a lot has progressed since his first appearance. The podcast opens with a discussion about HIVE’s recent announcement of the hiring of Jack Keneally, signalling our entry into the Space class. On what our products may look like, Bruce explained: “So the obvious cover is for launch and the life thereafter of the satellites in orbit. However, clarity in this fast-evolving sector, which is the shift away from state-sponsored missions to more commercial-sponsored missions now, some of which, or in fact, most of which, I think, are right in saying don't actually insure. So, you know, there's been a shift away from insurance for those as well, the likes of SpaceX.

“But there's a constant focus on the requirement for new insurance products. And examples would include debris liability, servicing of missions out there in orbit, and the advent of space tourism, obviously giving rise to PA for astronauts.”

Best in class

Moving onto HIVE’s team culture, Bruce discusses his desire to hire experienced underwriters that want and feel empowerment to perform at their best.

“And here at HIVE, we like underwriters. We like teams. We like people who are going to outperform. And I think they are best in their class or perceived to be best in their class by us. So you can look at the cycle, you can look at the trend. And I've said previously, there's no right or wrong time to join a class. There's just the right team. And with the right team, and when I talk about underwriters who outperform, how do you outperform in what is such a competitive marketplace? And I think it's having the right tools.”

He continued: “So I think it's quite important that you get underwriters who are going to say no and not be afraid to say no and walk away from business when it's underpriced. And that's really part of the problem that we have in our market place is that there are a whole bunch of underwriters out there who are forced to write for top line or all they've ever done is underwrite for top line, and they become a market tracker. So definitely being the opposite of that and being selective and being able to walk away, I think when the terms and conditions aren't in your favor, I think is key. And that is what we look for in teams and individuals.”

Real-time tracking

Finally, Bruce talked through HIVE Sentinel, HIVE’s in-house platform, talking host David through a live tracking of an aircraft travelling between London and New York.

“We can see from literally just clicking on that asset there that that aircraft is between London and New York. It's valued at $11.6 million. And we can then see the full aircraft details. HIVE shares 15.2% of this. And that data was updated two minutes ago. And then we can see the risk scores. It's actually mid-Atlantic, so there's no issue there.

“But were that flying at low-altitude over a conflict zone, it would be showing red. And if I was to pick certain of these assets down here on the continent of Africa, you can see that it's going to have a different risk score here. So you can see that very exactly. So Niger, Chad, Libya, Egypt, et cetera. And you can see that obviously there's a different risk score. So just a quick insight there.”

For more on these topics, plus others, listen to the full episode of the podcast here.

Thank you to David Benyon and The Political Risk Podcast for hosting Bruce.