Howden Re CEO Tim Ronda on gaining an edge in the competitive reinsurance market

Howden Re CEO Tim Ronda believes the recipe for success in a competitive reinsurance market starts with having the right talent and keeping them happy.

He told Voice of Insurance podcast host Mark Geoghegan: “We spent a lot of time trying to attract talent around the globe, by region and by product, where we didn’t have it before, and that’s sort of translated into 650 new colleagues in the last three years at Howden. 

“So, I think our story really is the people that we’ve accumulated how they can impact clients, how they can help clients grow, how they can give a different type of client service to clients, and then the byproduct of that is that we then have some revenue growth that’s associated with.”

When it comes to the war on talent, the reinsurance industry is known for having a fierce battle.

Ronda stressed contented staff are likely to stay.

Howden is one of the largest employee-owned private firms in the country – a key to the broking group’s success. 

Ronda said: “Are they happy here? Are they happy with the responsibility that they’ve been given? 

“Are they happy with their role with clients within the company? And if they’re happy here, then I’m less worried about them being attracted to go somewhere else where they could be happier.”

Ronda’s journey with Howden began in October 2021 when he joined from Aon. 

Ronda was President of Howden Tiger before taking over as CEO on 1 January 2024.

Casualty data lake 

Ronda highlighted how innovation is key to Howden’s success. As an example, he said they were building a ‘casualty data lake’. 

They will use artificial intelligence to help them extract insights.

He said: “The reality of the situation is, we’re trying to aggregate a bunch of industry data so that we could use AI to look at themes.

“So we can see if there are some themes that the top 25% of an underwriting class has that’s allowing them to be the top 25% of profit, versus the bottom 25% of profit, right?”

As the conversation on AI expanded, Geoghegan opined that AI was better at many different tasks compared to humans.

Ronda said anything that that allows for faster access to data, allowing improved strategic decision making, ‘is a win’.  

Overall, he judged AI as a ‘friend’.

He said: “I think it’s our friend. I don’t think it’s our enemy. I think people are always going to be making strategic decisions. 

“And I’m a full endorser of using the best available technology to allow people to make strategic decisions with the best available data.”

Facilities

The conversation then moved on to facilities. Geoghegan pointed out that facilities ‘lower the cost of capital on the expense’, allowing for firms to sell more reinsurance. 

The host asked: “We’re seeing a lot of specialty broker facilities in the London market. But then what about global reinsurance broking facilities?”

Ronda said he ‘could see it happening’. 

However, he batted away the idea of a total dominance of facilities in insurance marketplaces.

He pointed out that insurance firms will want to find value with a client, and they will have ideas that lie outside of facilities. 

He summarised: “If everyone’s already selling it, and it’s really easy to generate that capacity, there’s less value for the client in that facility.

“Where I think the facility provides a lot of value is if the client really needs a source of capacity, and you’re having to go to five to 10 people to generate that for them, rather than to just do it on an individual deal transaction.”