Tell us about your connection with IUMI?

Coming from the claims side of the marine insurance business, IUMI for me was nothing more than a conference in far away places that was the exclusive preserve of the underwriting community. It is only in later years that I have begun to appreciate the breadth and depth of IUMI’s work and the unique way in which it pulls together all sides of the marine insurance community to create a common industry voice.

I was asked to join IUMI’s Salvage Forum in early 2021 and then appointed as Chair in 2022. The Forum consists of twelve members from across the globe and includes both claims practitioners and legal experts. Our terms of reference were modified last year to widen the scope of the forum’s engagement. Very broadly we represent and promote insurer’s interests with respect to salvage and general average, monitor developments, act as an educational resource and promote good working relationships with other stakeholders such as the International Salvage Union, the IG and shipowners.

 

Why do you feel it’s important to be associated with IUMI?

Salvage and general average are important topics that affect both hull and cargo underwriters alike. IUMI facilitates open discussion across the industry and allows insurers to exchange experiences and views and ultimately promote a unified voice to our counterparts in the market. My first conference was Edinburgh in September this year and I was quite staggered by the sheer number of participants from all around the globe. It really is testimony to IUMI’s standing.

 

What is your day job and how did you get to that position?

I currently work as a Senior Claims Executive within the Marine claims team of Gard in Bergen, Norway. My day job primarily consists of hands-on claims handling with a good deal of client contact, marketing, seminars and presentations thrown into the mix. I started my career at the Danish insurer Codan, before testing the waters on the other side of the bay at shipowners Kristian Gerhard Jebsen Skipsrederi. I returned to insurance in 2012, started at Gard in 2015 and haven’t looked back. Like most people in our profession, I didn’t grow up dreaming of marine insurance but the industry fitted well with what I was looking for, with an international flavour, a wide variety of work and a fantastic and dedicated group of professionals.

 

Would you recommend a similar career path for newcomers to the sector and what advice would you give them?

Marine claims is a challenging and varied section of the industry and encourages participation from a wide variety of backgrounds – technical, economical, legal, nautical and operational. For anyone looking for a truly international business, where problem solving and client care are high on their list of priorities, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it. My key piece of advice is something of a cliché but the marine insurance world is highly specialist and the amount of knowledge and experience within it is vast and cannot be learnt overnight. Forging a career takes many years and newcomers must be patient, absorb what they can from those around them and learn to walk before they can run.

 

Assuming no barriers, what would you like to change in the marine insurance world?

I would like to change the way general average is handled for cases involving thousands of interests. The present system is inefficient, both in terms of the time and the costs involved and is often a source of frustration for the ultimate end-consumers of goods transported at sea. I think alternative solutions can be found but it will require the container shipping industry to pull together and drive through change to the benefit of all of their customers.

 

Tell us something about yourself that no one else knows!

My grandfather started a freight forwarding company in the 1970s that is still active today. It was certainly part of why I was attracted to a career within the maritime industry in the first place.

 

Where would you like to see life take you in the future?

At the moment I am quite content in provincial Bergen. I am fortunate to have landed in a city and country with a significant shipping and marine insurance pedigree and it would be very difficult to replicate what I have experienced elsewhere. Looking beyond work, I have started polishing up my French, having neglected it entirely since leaving school. Perhaps you will see me on ‘Escape to the Chateau’ in twenty years’ time, qui sait!