New Working Group for Corporate Risk Managers launched
Russell Group has officially launched a cross-industry ‘Russell Working Group’ of risk managers from leading large corporates covering the Energy, Construction, Financial Services, Manufacturing, Telecoms, Retail, Pharmaceutical, Logistics, Services, Defence and Aerospace sectors.
The group now includes over twenty members, was originally established over three years ago, and meets under the Chairmanship of David Broughton, Head of Insurable Risk at Centrica plc. with Neil Timberlake, Group Insurance Director at Land Securities as Vice-Chair.
The initial brief of the group was to consider ‘Connected Risk’ and to determine how using the sophisticated data and analytics capabilities from Russell Group could help quantify exposure. With the pandemic strongly emphasizing the interconnectivity of risk, intangible assets having overtaken the value of tangible assets, and with large corporations facing climate change and a variety of other risks to their future, the focus has morphed to focus more on resilience and corporate viability.
As David Broughton explained; ‘It is vital that large corporations are able to transfer a substantial amount of intangible risk, to release capital to fund future growth, and ensure the sustainability of their companies. They do not expect to do this in the way of traditional marketing, but by forming close partnerships, retaining a large percentage of the risks, and using any appropriate financial instruments available in the wider financial markets. We need to move away from peril-based products to considering risk from an outcome perspective.’
In the first quarter of 2021, at the invitation of the Chairman, the group held meetings with senior executives from eight major (re)insurers to stress the transforming corporate need and to establish the basis for revolutionary thinking to risk transfer solutions.
The group have since established four pillars of activity:
Pillar 1 - Define and create a business resilience risk transfer product and enabling data analytics.
Pillar 2 – Act as an Incubator for insurer product ideas.
Pillar 3 – Consider innovative solutions to make better use of Captives and other more readily available risk transfer solutions.
Pillar 4 - Promote the emerging corporate resilience need and gain support from established Government and Market Bodies.
Russell Managing Director, Suki Basi, speaking at the launch of the working group, said: ‘Resilience is high on the boardroom agenda of every company and insurer. The working group offers the opportunity to strengthen and deepen the relationship between corporates and insurers for the long-term strategic benefit of all parties.
So, in launching our working group, we are urging (re)insurers and corporates to be forward-thinking and have the imagination to create connected solutions in a changing world.”’
If you are interested in finding out more about the Russell Working Group or becoming a member please contact Julian Kirkman-Page at Russell (jkirkmanpage@russell.co.uk).
