IT’S BEEN just over 12 months since Ivan Gonzalez became
Swiss Re Corporate Solutions’ CEO for North America. He took the reins of the North American business at a challenging time for the industry, characterized by a continued downward trend in commercial insurance rates and a persistent low-interest-rate environment, which, along with a fiercely competitive climate, have tested carriers’ ability to make profits and generate shareholder returns.
“It’s a very challenging time, for sure,” Gonzalez says. “At the same time, it’s one that is very stimulating because I think it tests your abilities as a leader and manager. I also really endorse the idea that you don’t let a soft market go to waste. You need to take advantage of the current challenging environment to make decisions and position your company for future market conditions that will be more attractive. We need to make sure that we’re ready to capitalize.”
A Colombian national, Gonzalez joined Swiss Re 17 years ago and has undertaken roles in Switzerland, the US and Brazil. He was appointed CEO of Latin America for Swiss Re Corporate Solutions in 2011, and under his leadership the business achieved exponential, high-quality growth.
The Swiss Re Group established its Corporate Solutions business in 2010. Today, innovationit’s one of the top players in the excess layer market in North America.
“Naturally, the fact that we have become such a prominent player in the excess layer market means that we need to find other avenues for growth,” Gonzalez says. “We’re now trying to move from the excess layer market and complement our offering with the next segment, which is the primary lead market.”
Gonzalez’s mandate is to determine how Corporate Solutions can expand its primary lead presence in the US and Canada.
“In order to do that, I’m focused on the segmentation of our business – making sure that in the US we have a good product offering and service quality for each segment: excess layers, primary lead, excess and surplus, MGAs, or the East, Central, or West regions … and that we have a fully dedicated operation in Canada,” he says. “That segmentation is very important to us.”
Standing out
In addition to the reputation of the global Swiss Re brand, its impressive financial strength and its capacity, Gonzalez singles out claims commitment as a key distinguishing attribute of Corporate Solutions.
“We have made a conscious decision to be very transparent and clear with our clients about what they should expect in the event of a claim,” he says. “We are determined to be recognized as the number-one company in terms of claims processing quality and have consistently received top industry honours in this category.”
Gonzalez cites innovation as another integral differentiating feature.
“I think the industry talks a lot about innovation, but at the end of the day, when you look at the amount of capital that it’s invested in research and development, I think that Swiss Re is – by a very large margin – the company that invests the most in [R&D],” he says. “Through the Swiss Re Institute, we pride ourselves on being at the forefront of innovation within the industry, and I think the industry recognizes that.”
Gonzalez says the Swiss Re Group is fully cognizant of the current insurtech landscape and the potential for disruption to different parts of the insurance value chain.
“We spend a lot of time trying to understand how we can leverage some of the different ideas that are coming up on the technology side and apply that to our business model,” he says, adding that the goal is to find technologies that will make Corporate Solutions more efficient, more effective and more sustainable in terms of its ability to offer solutions that address clients’ risk management needs on a consistent basis.
“The whole digitalization of our business and the ability to leverage electronic broker platforms is definitely something that we are focused on at this point in time,” he says.
Gonzalez also believes the fact that Corporate Solutions is only seven years old gives it an advantage on the tech front.
“We don’t have the legacy systems that a lot of our competitors have,” he says. “Big data is something that we can definitely leverage from our underwriting, and you see a lot of that in our innovative risk solutions segment. We do a lot of tailor-made solutions for our clients, and we also partner with a number of third party insurtech firms. For the cyber segment in particular, we have a partnership with IBM.”
However, Gonzalez also stresses the need to be conscious of the white noise in insurtech. “We really want to distinguish what is hype and what is reality,” he says.
The way forward
Now beginning his second year as North American CEO, Gonzalez says his focus for the next 12 months will include examining the efficiency of Corporate Solutions’ operations.
“How do we go to market?” he says. “How do we process the information and requests from our clients and brokers? It needs to be significantly enhanced because the market conditions are such that cost becomes one of the key variables for you to manage the cycle. [Also,] making sure that … when the market turns, we’re in a better position than our competitors.
“Point number two,” he continues, “is making sure that … we’re also focused on innovation and the ability to work with our clients to address [increasingly sophisticated] risk management needs … and making sure that we can develop the products they need.”
Clients can rest easy, though – Gonzalez is confident that Corporate Solutions isn’t going anywhere.
“We will not be subject to the volatility of a number of our competitors,” he says. “We really are here to stay.”
