Since becoming President I have spent time with my colleagues on the Executive Committee to establish the priorities for my term of office. Much of what I want to achieve is largely an extension of the work already initiated by my predecessor, Dieter Berg, and our excellent Technical Committees.  Working in close cooperation with Lars Lange and his team, I am keen to focus on these four key areas:

Membership – Our members are the soul of our organisation and we will continue to deliver a comprehensive package of high-quality and relevant services to the current membership. Simultaneously we will expand membership in the two key areas of Asia and Africa. The annual IUMI Asia Forum; our recent appointment of an Africa Ambassador (Hilton Adams); and the new membership category of “Associate Membership” provide a foundation for membership growth in these regions.

Education – Over the past two years we have made solid inroads into delivering an education programme to encourage new talent into the sector, and to develop existing talent. Our aim is to continue to grow our breadth of education services whilst ensuring quality is maintained. Uptake has been good and our task this year is to see continual growth in participation.

Advocacy - IUMI’s voice has become much stronger in the last few years and this will continue. Our Policy Forum works to identify, review and consolidate our position on issues that have the potential to impact our sector; we will also continue to be effective at IMO. Our aim is to identify current and potential risks and take steps with the industry to ensure they remain insurable.

Data and digitalisation - This issue will become even more important and is one of our top priorities. In the longer-term we see fundamental changes to the way we conduct our business in terms of risk evaluation, claims handling and other underwriting processes. We will continue to build on the work already done and invest time and resources in assisting our members through the change.  

These issues, and others, will be discussed at our annual conference in Toronto in September. Marine insurance is in a state of flux and the challenges we continue to face will also be under the spotlight. To reflect this, we’ve settled on the provocative conference theme “Confronting the chaos for a sustainable future?”. I’m sure this will encourage a lively, useful and thought-provoking debate and I look forward to your input.