and to help the regulator I wish that all entities
Chairman’s involved in general insurance, from the ABI,
the International Underwriters Association,
statement continued the Chartered Insurance Association and
Lloyd’s, would form a General Insurance Body
to be a strong lobby and, to an extent, a self-
regulating body. We in the industry know when
a competitor is going to go bust as we trade
against them and see the folly; we ought to have
a system of warning the regulator. And we
desperately need a strong lobby to fight for
The future looks us in the corridors of power. For instance,
when a very senior politician starts attacking
as exciting the insurance industry for its performance over
as the past has flood damage, someone needs to hit back very
hard with the truth.
been for me
The next era
I set out to run an honest business, to choose
the best people to help me run the business, and
to pick honest and careful clients who we would
treat with great integrity and efficiency. The
ability to pick the right people is to me the most
important talent in all of life. My first major
delegation was to Nicholas Thomson who was
a brilliant underwriter and we owe him a huge
debt of gratitude for the strong underwriting
discipline he instilled. The next major delegation
was to Bronek Masojada who joined in 1993 as
Managing Director to help run the company and
took the reins as CEO in 2000. Like an Oscar
winner I would like to mention a whole host of
others who have been indispensable, especially
Alec Foster who handled our Lloyd’s members
in the early days and invested all our money
so wisely, but space does not permit.
We have spent the last era building businesses
both inside and outside Lloyd’s and I believe we
have developed some very strong future profit
generators to add to our existing international
and retail businesses. I hand over to Robert
Childs (who has done incredibly valuable work
at Hiscox for 26 years) and the top team with a
happy heart. I have had fantastic fun building the
business, and it will be just as enjoyable watching
the success in the next era.
Robert Hiscox
25 February 2013
6 Chairman’s statement Hiscox Ltd Report and Accounts 2012