In this episode of Beyond the Desk, Mark Thomas is joined by Gilbert Harrap, CEO and co-founder of InsurX, the technology business connecting brokers and insurers in the London Market. They talk about leaving a senior corporate role to start a business, how a moment during the pandemic turned a side project into a company, and what it takes to grow as a leader as that company scales.

Gilbert joined MS Amlin as a graduate and spent six years in treaty reinsurance, underwriting US property risk and working his way from underwriting assistant to underwriter. Wanting to see the bigger picture, he took a full-time MBA at INSEAD, sponsored by MS Amlin, before returning as a strategy manager tasked with turning data into better underwriting decisions, and later becoming Head of Strategy for the reinsurance division. That is where the idea for InsurX began. In April 2020, as the London Market was forced to trade remotely, he realised the market would never go back to how it was, and on 1 November 2021 he and his co-founder Will started full-time.

The conversation then turns to a question every founder has to answer: how do you turn a big idea into something customers will pay for today?

Gilbert explains how InsurX’s vision of data flowing seamlessly between brokers and insurers had to start with one specific, painful problem: event cancellation insurance after the pandemic. From $20 million of premium in its first full year of trading, the platform is on track for around $170 million this year, with 35 insurers signed up. He also shares why InsurX has raised from investors connected to the insurance market rather than venture capital, and the lessons that come with growing from two founders to a team of 35.

A candid conversation about career pivots, founding an insurtech, data and technology in the London Market, and growing as a leader as the business scales.

In this episode of Beyond the Desk, Mark Thomas is joined by Crispin Marsland-Roberts, Chief Operating Officer at Hive Underwriters, the London Market MGA specialising in aviation, marine and political violence and terrorism risks. They talk about one of the most unconventional routes into insurance leadership, what it takes to build and scale a specialist MGA, and how smaller businesses can use data and AI to move faster than the market’s biggest players.

Crispin’s career has taken him from a gilts desk and Manchester University, through importing fresh produce for Marks & Spencer and helping build the Tenderstem broccoli brand, to running the finances of a content agency and supporting small businesses as an independent operator. That work led him to DA Strategy, where he fell into delegated authority, helped get new MGAs off the ground and first met Hive founder Bruce Common. He later joined Hive full-time as COO. His approach throughout has been simple: don’t chase the money or the title, chase the opportunity.

The conversation then turns to a question at the heart of today’s MGA boom: what separates the MGAs that thrive from the ones that struggle?

Crispin explains why a clear point of difference, a strong data story and a charismatic leader matter far more than a fully staffed C-suite on day one. He also shares how Hive is putting data and AI to work, from its Sentinel flight-tracking database to automated slip comparison. The aim isn’t to replace underwriting judgement but to put the right information in front of underwriters so they can make better, faster decisions.

They discuss:

• Crispin’s early ambitions to play sport and join the army, and how dyslexia shaped the way he learns, writes and communicates
• Starting out on a gilts desk, and why it showed him what he didn’t want to do
• Running the Marks & Spencer desk at a fresh produce importer by his mid-twenties
• Stepping into operations and finance roles “because there was an absence of it”
• Bringing budgets and process to a content agency full of filmmakers with big ideas
• Going self-employed to give small business owners the skills they don’t have
• Falling into insurance through Charles Rowley and DA Strategy
• Why he often asks: “If we invented insurance today, what would it look like?”
• Streamlining delegated authority, and why a coverholder you’ve worked with for 15 years shouldn’t face 300 questions at every renewal
• Helping Bruce Carman launch Hive, and why a startup MGA doesn’t need a full C-suite on day one
• The move from consultant to COO, and how the role has evolved as Hive has doubled in size
• What surprised him about the London Market: slow-moving data, bordereaux and approval timelines

A candid conversation about career pivots, operational leadership, MGAs, data and AI, and building a culture that scales.

In this episode of Beyond the Desk, host Mark Thomas is joined by Jonathan Fletcher, currently an Operating Advisor for mid-market private equity firm Abri, and former Group CTO of both CFC and Hiscox.

Jonathan takes us right back to the beginning – from tinkering with a Commodore 64 as a kid, to a split degree in computer science and music, through early jobs at Saatchi & Saatchi and the London Stock Exchange, and on to seven years scaling Hiscox's technology function. He then shares what it was really like joining CFC as employee number 200, scaling its tech and data capability to nearly 200 people, and living through one of the biggest private equity valuations the insurance sector has seen.

Now working as an advisor across a portfolio of PE-backed businesses, Jonathan reflects on what value creation really means for technology, why resilience is the number one executive skill, and what it takes to make the leap from hands-on technologist to commercially-minded leader.

In This Episode You'll Learn

• Jonathan's unconventional route into tech – splitting his degree between computer science and music, and early jobs at Saatchi & Saatchi, a VC firm, and the London Stock Exchange
• The seven years he spent at Hiscox, rising from architect to Group CTO
• What it was like joining CFC as employee number 200, and the culture shock of moving from a FTSE 100 business to a founder-led, entrepreneurial scale-up
• How CFC's tech and data team grew from 18 people to nearly 200, building in-house capability from scratch
• What it's really like working inside a private-equity backed business, including being part of one of the biggest ever PE valuations for an insurer
• How his role evolved from hands-on engineering to a more product- and business-facing leadership position
• What his current advisory work with Abri and non-exec role at AA Ireland involves
• Where AI and automation are already reshaping specialty insurance, and why identifying 'who a company really is' remains one of the hardest unsolved problems
• His advice for technologists who want to move into senior leadership roles

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Connect with Mark Thomas and Jonathan Fletcher on LinkedIn to continue the conversation.