Top talent, top performance

Ironshore CEO Kevin H. Kelley discusses his remarkable career in insurance and the difference that recruiting the right people can make

Top talent, top performance

People

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When Kevin Kelley was a college student and deciding on a career, he knew he wanted a job that was heavily influenced by current events. And, according to Kelley, his career in insurance has delivered.

“Every day that I pick up a Wall Street Journal or a Financial Times, there’s some mention of a client, trend or event that directly impacts Ironshore,” he says. “The other big thing with me was I really did enjoy business economics and analysing risk and actually assuming risk, and seeing what the outcome would lead to, and obviously doing it in a thoughtful way. That also kind of led me to this business or potentially the banking business. Quite frankly, I’m very happy that I entered this business.”

Kelley believes that insurance has plenty to offer today’s young job-seekers, too.

“I think young people today are a lot more entrepreneurial than prior generations,” he says. “There are probably a ton of reasons for that, but you see a Steve Jobs, you see the founder of Facebook and others who have made a fortune principally through founding a company and figuring out a technology that allowed them to build that company and create a lot of wealth. If you truly are entrepreneurial – you truly want to build something – this is a great environment to do that in, and guys like me and many of my peers are great examples of that.”

Creating a legacy
Kelley spent 33 years at AIG subsidiary Lexington Insurance Company, including more than two decades as its CEO. He’s been credited with building Lexington into a leading excess & surplus lines insurer.

“I had a very unique opportunity within AIG in that I was given the opportunity to build a company at a very early age,” he says. “I had joined the company, roughly, at 25. By 36, I was the CEO.”
                
Kelley credits his early success to the opportunities presented to him and other young executives at AIG.

“AIG was known for many things – one in particular was they gave younger executives a phenomenal opportunity,” he says.

“Like most opportunities, you can run with it and win, or you can fail. AIG provided me with a phenomenal platform to build Lexington, and we became not only the market leader in the surplus lines industry, but we dominated the market and probably built the best company of its type ever. You don’t get that opportunity often, but I’m very thankful for the fact that I did. AIG provided the environment, the capital and was very supportive in allowing us to hire talented people who allowed us to do that.”

After leaving Lexington in 2008, Kelley took on his current role as CEO of Bermuda-based commercial property & casualty insurer Ironshore. At that time, the company was only two years old, and its gross written premium totalled $385 million. Since then, under Kelley’s leadership, Ironshore has rapidly and impressively grown and continues to expand its global operations. Today, its GWP is around $2.2 billion.

Kelley attributes his success at Ironshore again to the talented people around him – who, he says, were ready and able to capitalize on a significant opportunity.

“I think what really gave us the big oomph was the fact that we were able to … hire a lot of people quickly,” he says. “What we were able to seize on was the fact that, after the financial services collapse here in the United States, clients were very concerned about concentrations of counterparty exposure. They wanted to focus on diversifying that counterparty exposure. That created an opportunity for a new company like us.
 
“We then had people who could take advantage of that opportunity,” he continues, “and then, ultimately, we were able to realize the benefi t of that opportunity and build on the success that we achieved. That really is it – I think when you can attract good people quickly, you can grow quickly.”

The next chapter
Among the regions in which Ironshore continues to grow is Asia Pacific. In November, the company became an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Shanghaibased Fosun International. At the time, Kelley said the acquisition would enable Ironshore to continue building its international specialty platform and enhance its global brand.

Although Ironshore’s presence in the Asia Pacific region is relatively small at the moment, Kelley says the company is exploring ways to expand it.

“Our focus is insurance, and it’s what we do well, as opposed to just a refl ection of the market,” he says. “What we do in Australia can be very di_ erent from what we do in Singapore, from the standpoint of products we offer. We’re patient investors in a territory like Asia Pac. We will have our first regional executive meeting in Hong Kong at the end of this month … I think it will allow us to really gauge how we’re doing and what opportunities are ahead of us that we can help realize.”
To that end, Kelley sees his focus over the next 12 months as ensuring that he and his team remain focused on their core business.

“My job, I believe, in 2016 is to keep our people focused on performance and to make sure that we don’t lose sight of that,” he says. “The business environment continues to be very challenging. It’s one that you can maneuver in, but it’s one where if you do make a mistake, you pay for it dearly.”
Away from insurance, Kelley devotes considerable time to community causes that serve education.

“Education is truly a door-opener,” he says. “If there’s one thing you can do for your career, it’s go to school. When you go to school, you think clearer, you have greater insight, and ultimately, you hope that leads to better judgment because, when it’s all said and done, the decisions you make are probably the most important things that you do. In essence, you become a reflection of your decisions. That is probably as applicable to one’s career as it is to one’s life.”

 

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