Speakers

Jessie Burrows is Managing Director – Claims at Direct Line Group and is responsible for all aspects of Direct Line Group personal lines and commercial lines claims and the Group’s counter-fraud activities.  The Direct Line Group Claims business employs over 3,500 people across the UK; pays over £1.8bn in claims to customers each year; and owns 20 accident repair centres across the UK, repairing around 90,000 cars every year. Jessie was previously Group Financial Controller at Direct Line working for the Group CFO and was responsible for the Group’s financial reporting, planning, data operations and business partnering.

Jessie has 25 years insurance industry experience.  Prior to joining Direct Line Group, Jessie was at Aviva plc for 13 years and rose to Director of Financial Planning and Analysis and Chief Accounting officer in the UKGI business, having been Head of Group Investor Relations and Director of Group Financial Reporting and Planning.  Jessie joined Aviva from KPMG and is an associate Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants England and Wales.

Jessie is married with two children aged 14 and 12, enjoys tennis, travelling with the family and loves music. 

Post and Insurance Age content director Jonathan Swift has written and commented about the insurance industry since 1998. He has appeared on television speaking about topics as diverse as the insurance implications of Michael Jackson's death to the consequences of consolidation on motor premiums; and is a past winner of the British Insurance Brokers' Association journalist of the year and Association of British Insurers general insurance trade journalist prizes.
Jonathan has chaired/ hosted over 100 insurance events from roundtables involving a small specially invited audience, to addressing over 2000 people at the British Insurance Awards at the Royal Albert Hall. He is listed as a top 50 insurtech influencer by Insurtech News and presently coordinates the All Party Parliamentary Group for Insurance and Financial Services.

Shaun has over 9 years experience working in fraud prevention, having worked for one of the UK's largest fraud prevention data providers before coming to iovation. With a natural interest in technology, Shaun is passionate about cyber security, fraud prevention and online customer experience. Shaun is focused on delivering innovative and market leading products to organisations within the Insurance sector, across fraud, risk, security and customer journey touchpoints. Aiming to consolidate the effort of detecting and investigating incidents of online fraud, with the security concern of preventing data loss, access management and user authentication.

Having spent over 15 years working in the insurance industry, with almost a decade in the Counter-Fraud space, Stephen is excited to have joined Confused.com and to be building on an excellent foundation of counter-fraud work already in place. In collaboration with partners, his role gives him the freedom to explore new initiatives to reduce fraud and ensure efficiency as well as accuracy in the business’s fraud systems. His role also provides endless opportunities to work with the wider Insurance and financial services industry, including continued collaboration with, and supporting the aims of the Insurance Fraud Bureau, Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department, and CIFAS.

Sue is the Head of Claims for Aspen Risk Management, She set up the technical and operational standards and management of the claims function in 2011. This now sits across 2 platforms, handling Commercial Claims to include GL, Property, D&O, PI, Cyber and Marine Transit. She has helped shape the products offered, identifying client needs with market research and relationship management. Earlier roles include that of founding Director of Hawes McCall and Associates, Head of Group Claims for Novae (now Axis) and Head of London Market Claims for Independent Insurance.

Sue has over 35 years’ experience in change management, operational management and technical claims handling and investigation, spanning most classes. She has an advanced diploma in insurance from the Chartered Insurance Institute; is a Chartered Insurer; sits on the Post Claims Network Board; is a past President of the North Downs Insurance Institute and the current Chair of the Society of Claims Professionals.

Sue is a great supporter of Diversity and Inclusion, holding a role as the D&I Officer for North Downs Insurance Institute from 2017-2019. She helped with the CIIs Dive In Campaign at Lloyds, is also a member of the Link Insurance Network; regularly attends the Interlaw Diversity Forum Events and has a special interest in mental health strategies in the workplace.

Jeremy has a varied background, having joined Commercial Union over 20 years ago on their graduate training programme where he spent 11 years, surviving two mergers to be appointed as Maidstone Sales and Underwriting Manager in 2003.    

After profitably growing this account, Jeremy moved across to Allianz in January 2006 where as well as picking up the sales and underwriting site, he has his first experience of managing a large operation when he was responsible for handling the Allianz SME business. In May 2009, he moved into Allianz's head office and successfully managed an Innovation & Strategy team looking across the whole of Allianz UK where he and his team drove out in excess of £10m worth of annualised savings a year earlier than planned.

After 3 years in this role, Jeremy moved back into his current role of Head of Operations for Claims, which gives responsibility to him for driving the operational delivery of the claims service from around 700 employees from three sites in the UK and one in Trivandrum in India.

During his 7 years in this role, the operational environment has been through a radical overhaul with significant organisational change including the closure of offices and the expansion of the offshoring team accompanied by the digitalisation of the customer journey, the implementation of a new IT system and the introduction of the Robotics programme into Allianz UK claims.

As well as his Allianz responsibilities, after 5 years on the CII Claims Faculty board, he has recently been appointed Non-Executive Director of the recently formed Society of Claims Professionals where he is able to combine his passion for developing professionalism in the industry with supporting training & development of the societies’ members.      

Jeremy lives in Kent with his wife and two children and when outside of work, enjoys spending time with them and watching and taking part in a variety of sports. 

Andy Bord is Chief Executive Officer of Flood Re. He also heads up the Executive Team. Formerly CEO at Capita Insurance Services, Andy has also worked for Staysure, BGL Group (owners of CompareTheMarket) and Vodafone UK.

Martin has over 20 years experience in general insurance in various operational and technical roles, predominantly within Churchill Insurance. During that time he got involved in a variety of issues including being heavily involved in the creation of the Credit Hire GTA.

In 2003 he became claims fraud manager for RBS insurance and was involved in the formation of the Insurance Fraud Bureau.

In 2006 he joined LV= and is now claims director, managing personal and commercial lines claims across a range of LV= brands.

Martin is married with three children and is a keen Leeds United supporter.

Following more than 22 years service as a police officer, Steve has spent over 17 years working in counter-fraud. As Head of Financial Crime for Covéa Insurance, Steve leads the development of Covéa Insurance’s internal and external counter-fraud strategy, encompassing both claims and underwriting fraud.

Steve was appointed as Chair of the Insurance Fraud Investigators Group in December 2016, which has the overall objective of supporting the fraud investigation community by providing a platform to share knowledge, expertise and intelligence together with accredited training.

Prior to joining Covéa Insurance, Steve held senior fraud management roles with Equity Insurance and Zurich Insurance together with specialist investigation roles with Cunningham Lindsey and Capita Insurance Services. From 2008-2011

Steve also chaired the North West Fraud Forum, which had the objective of sharing counter-fraud advice between local businesses and public authorities within the region and now also works as an Independent Consultant.

James has worked at Allianz Insurance for the past 19 years across a variety of commercial underwriting, operational and technical roles.  He is responsible for leading the Allianz UK fraud strategy for both claims and application by ensuring protection of all Allianz UK portfolios against fraud through the effective implementation and use of market leading tools and process’s.’

I am a full time companion animal vet and director of the  13 vet companion Animal

Department of Stanley House Vet Group, our  mixed practice in Lancashire. I am also veterinary advisor and veterinary panel lead for Agria Pet insurance. 

In 2013-4 I was President of the British Veterinary Association. I sit on the council of the Royal Veterinary College London. 

I qualified from Liverpool university in 1985 having grown up on a Yorkshire Dales hill farm. 

Calum McPhail, Head of Liability Claims (Motor and Casualty) Zurich

• Joined Zurich in May 2004 having spent 17 years as a Chartered Loss Adjuster
• 14 years at Zurich in various technical and customer facing claims roles
• Current Head of Liability Claims (Motor & Casualty)
• Former Chair of the Forum of Scottish Claims Managers
• Interested in legislative and market developments and has given evidence on behalf of the ABI to the Scottish Government Justice Committee on the Civil Litigation Bill

Sue qualified as a solicitor in 1996 and has specialised in personal injury, clinical negligence and professional negligence since 1990, having spent 13 years at West End firm Reid Minty, four years on the defendant side with Royal & Sun Alliance Legal, and from 2007 to July 2016 as a director and head of personal injury and professional negligence at Prolegal.  She is an accredited mediator, a LexisNexis contributing author, sits on the LexisNexis editorial board for PI, and is a regular commentator on legal issues in the legal and national press.

She was MASS Chair for the period 2013-2015 and is currently a director of Claims Portal, Medco and MASS, and chair of the Medco audit committee.

Greg is a partner in Kennedys’ Sheffield office. He advises composite insurers and large corporate clients in relation to the investigation and defence of personal injury claims. Greg heads up the firm’s employers’ liability and public liability group and has a specialist focus on large loss and/or catastrophic injury and disease matters, including utmost severity, brain and spinal injury, amputations, vegetative state or altered consciousness, polytrauma, brachial plexus injury, severe psychiatric injury (including work-related stress) and chronic pain.

Greg has particular experience working with corporate clients, their insurers and brokers to improve their ability to defend claims, undertaking a wide range of work for a variety of clients. Greg’s particular expertise lies in helping companies become “better” insureds. By helping them to understand the litigation process, develop strategies for improving the quality of their accident investigations and training their staff, he believes that the defensibility of claims can be significantly improved, and the cost of claims reduced.

Greg regularly provides training to claims handlers, businesses and lawyers on a range of subjects, including disease claims, manual handling, slips and trips, work-related upper limb disorders, CRU/CRU appeals, fatal accident claims, GDPR, effective investigation of accidents, obligations of corporate defendants under the CPR. He is a member of the Forum of Insurance Lawyers.

David has a blend of technical and general management experience developed in the UK and international GI markets. Over the last 25 years he has held as mix of both strategic and operational leadership roles, including; Managing Director, Chief Underwriting Officer, Insurance Risk Director and Commercial Underwriting Director for non-life operations across the UK, Europe and Canada.

Role at Towers Watson

David leads the Pricing, Products, Claims and Underwriting Practices across both software and consulting. Working closely with the Actuarial and Software teams across Life and P&C, he is responsible for the Radar Suite of software. David’s interests include:

• Transforming business performance
• Deploying best practice underwriting, pricing, claims and portfolio management
• Extending the lifespan and functional capabilities of legacy IT platforms to facilitate digital transactions
• Deploying intelligent automation, including machine learning algorithms across the underwriting process
• Data driven decisions - Improving management information, and the use of external data to support portfolio and case underwriting decisions
• Improving technical pricing approaches in commercial and specialty lines of business.
• Developing capital allocation methodologies that reflect the inherent risk mix in a portfolio
• Disruptive products and distribution

Education and Credentials

David has a degree in Insurance, Banking and Finance and is an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Insurers.

Adele Sumner is the Head of Counter Fraud Strategy & Financial Crime at RSA Insurance UK. She has over twenty years of ‘hands on’ experience in counter fraud activity in the insurance sector, including leading RSA’s Fraud Intelligence Team where she developed techniques and  experience in the use of the internet, both to assist individual investigations and to obtain data that will enhance fraud detection models. She is widely acknowledged for her expertise in the practical deployment and use of technology to identify fraud and has been an important figure in various fraud technology programmes both in RSA and at an industry level.  In her current role she is responsible for developing strategies to tackle fraud and adopts a risk focused, intelligence led approach to combating the external threat fraud posed to RSA. In 2008 she obtained a Master Degree in Fraud Management from Teesside University.

Tom is a partner in Kennedys’ Manchester office. He specialises in cyber, professional indemnity and media liability. Tom leads Kennedys’ UK cyber practice and has been instrumental in developing the firm’s global cyber offering.

Tom has extensive experience in cyber liability and data risk. He acts as a breach coach and has advised on numerous multi-national e-commence breaches as well as several high-profile domestic compromises.  He regularly defends claims pursued by data subjects and advises insurers and multi-national corporations on data risk and compliance.

Tom also has considerable experience of defending traditional and emerging professionals, with a particular focus on technology and media professionals. He is regularly instructed to advise Insurers on coverage issues and the management of cross-border disputes.

He is a member of the IUA Cyber Claims Committee and the FOIL Cyber and Digital Liabilities Sector Focus Group.  Tom is a regular speaker at industry events and frequently contributes to national and trade press publications.

Martin is a partner in Kennedys’ Manchester office. He is head of the firm’s counter fraud unit, operating in the UK as well as internationally.

Martin is a fraud expert, acting for insurers, corporate and self-insured clients, advising on cross-client organised and complex fraud investigations. His work includes managing and coordinating litigation, investigation strategies and individual interests for clients whilst working with industry bodies, such as the Insurance Fraud Bureau (IFB), regulators and the police. He builds counter fraud strategies to detect and challenge fraudulent claims, ensuring best practice, effective process and measures to deter and prevent fraud.

Martin has been involved in cross-industry operations of note, such as; Adam v Lick (UK) Ltd, Operation Clapham, Operation Undergo and Operation Neasden. His experience sees him coordinating cross-jurisdiction initiatives in counter fraud and working across all lines of business within the firm.

Martin was instrumental in developing the firms’ counter fraud product Ki - a unique industry fraud detection and investigation solution that harnesses and utilises more live data than any other investigation system on the market.

Martin is a member of the Insurance Fraud Investigators Group (IFIG) and the Fraud Advisory Panel. He is frequently involved in lobbying activities, including attending a briefing with the Insurance Fraud Taskforce at Whitehall. He often contributes to industry publications and journals.

A Chartered Loss Adjuster and Chartered Insurer Jonathan has over 35 years claims handling experience. He has dealt with claims in more than 50 countries and has worked with many of the world's largest corporations on their claims programmes. He has designed and implemented claims compensation schemes for governmental bodies and was Claims Director of the Financial Services Compensation scheme from 2007 to 2009.

After a lengthy career at executive level in the world’s largest claims adjusting firms, he joined SCOR in 2013 as head of claims in London. Jonathan is now Global Head of Claims for Business Solutions within the SCOR Global P& C.

Jonathan is past President of the London Business Interruption Association, past Treasurer of the Insurance Institute of London immediate past President of the Chartered Institute of Loss Adjusters and President of the Chartered Insurance Institute.

He holds degrees in Biochemistry and Biochemical Engineering from Oxford and London Universities.  Hobbies include music and sailing in which he has been a member of the British Sailing team as well as a regular columnist for a leading magazine.

Max grew up in rural Somerset where he started working on a neighbouring dairy farm at age 14. In 2006 he moved to France where he spent ten years working on dairy, beef, arable, pig, poultry and tobacco farms. Now living in West Yorkshire; Max’s role includes designing training programmes, consultancy work and client development on a national level.

Max grew up in rural Somerset where he started working on a neighbouring dairy farm at age 14. In 2006 he moved to France where he spent ten years working on dairy, beef, arable, pig, poultry and tobacco farms. Now living in West Yorkshire; Max’s role includes designing training programmes, consultancy work and client development on a national level.

Doug joined AIG in 2004 handling complex catastrophic claims involving both personal lines and commercial motor claims and his current role of Complex Motor Injury Claims Manager oversees the Motor Injury Claims Department. Doug has built up his technical expertise over a period of 25 years progressing through various positions in the motor claims insurance industry.   Doug represents AIG on a number of different industry panels and is pivotal in driving the strategic and technical direction in an ever changing landscape.     

Michael has 25 years’ experience in the insurance sector, supporting major brands to provide innovative and customer focussed solutions. As Head of Partnerships at Minster Law, Michael is responsible for strategic third-party relationships. He works closely with insurers to remove friction and combat fraud through collaboration geared towards fair customer outcomes.  

Stephen, a qualified Solicitor Advocate, has dealt with all aspects of personal injury claims and his strength lies in his pragmatic, methodical and no-nonsense approach to claims. His proactive manner encourages dialogue among client, claimant and agent at an early stage. He is the leader and manager of BTO’s large team dealing with high volume personal injury claims. He believes his team is second to none in providing a first rate service to insurers specifically targeted at early settlement and minimising costs. Costs are a particular issue of contention in this area and the successes that the team have achieved in their keen negotiations and court arguments, under Stephen’s supervision, have seen savings for clients of almost £1million (on average around 15%) on costs presented versus costs paid in cases valued at less than £50,000 over a three year period.