{"id":6643,"date":"2024-04-08T10:16:04","date_gmt":"2024-04-08T09:16:04","guid":{"rendered":"httpss:\/\/www.advantagego.com\/?p=6643"},"modified":"2025-03-26T04:30:02","modified_gmt":"2025-03-26T04:30:02","slug":"voi-podcast-with-serene-davis-and-james-orchard-of-qbe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.advantagego.com\/en-us\/content\/voi-podcast-with-serene-davis-and-james-orchard-of-qbe\/","title":{"rendered":"Cyber and technology \u2013 navigating a crowded ecosystem"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><iframe title=\"Ep205 Serene Davis &amp; James Orchard of QBE: Stars aligning for Innovation\" allowtransparency=\"true\" height=\"150\" width=\"100%\" style=\"border: none; min-width: min(100%, 430px);height:150px;\" scrolling=\"no\" data-name=\"pb-iframe-player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.podbean.com\/player-v2\/?i=eete4-15cbbf0-pb&amp;from=pb6admin&amp;share=0&amp;download=1&amp;rtl=0&amp;fonts=Tahoma&amp;skin=3267a3&amp;font-color=auto&amp;logo_link=episode_page&amp;btn-skin=1b1b1b\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The latest Voice of Insurance podcast instalment features two senior executives working together on technology in different ways: Serene Davis is Global Head of Cyber at insurer QBE; and James Orchard is CEO of QBE Ventures.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Up to now, the development of cyber insurance has been patchy for property and casualty (P&amp;C) insurers, QBE included. Different strategies have played out across various markets around the globe, according to global head of cyber Serene Davis, based in Los Angeles, who joined QBE last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the maturer cyber markets in North America, Europe and the London market, her cyber underwriting approach has been about developing cyber business cohesively. In Asia and Australasia, she described a \u201cground up approach\u201d, bringing cohesiveness to markets at an earlier stage of development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Davis has been tasked with creating a global offering for cyber at QBE \u2013 maximising the benefits of the group\u2019s expertise, scale and footprint \u2013 for a product that works on a global scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s something that QBE has been missing a trick on,\u201d she said. \u201cI think it will be quite meaningful to flex our global muscle for the first time in cyber. That speaks to bringing the organisation together across divisions. To do cyber \u2018globally\u2019 is important to QBE because it takes priorities we have beyond just a profitable product that we can grow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From her previous regional US roles at Beazley, Davis described the situation around fifteen years ago, when there was a limited pool of subject matter experts to partner with, such as cyber security technology vendors and forensic legal specialists. This situation has now transformed into a crowded marketplace, she described.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt&#8217;s a lot of fun for me to see what&#8217;s in that ecosystem of new startup technology,\u201d Davis said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIf you fast forward to today, it&#8217;s almost overwhelming, all of the vendors and companies who want to be in the cyber space. James [Orchard]\u2019s team helps with making sure that who gets in front of me and in front of the cyber team is worthwhile to explore.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>James Orchard is chief executive of QBE Ventures, He runs a team of ten, whose job it is to assist senior executives like Serene in realising their vision through the partnerships and strategic investments that will build up the technology providers that will help them achieve their goals. As a product at the forefront of technology and insurance innovation, Serene noted she works closely with Orchard, who works closely with the business teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Orchard began his career in the private equity world \u2013 useful experience for managing QBE\u2019s insurtech ventures arm. He took up his role around three years ago, during Covid, wanting to join an insurance company with a large footprint across the key P&amp;C markets globally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cParticularly in commercial and specially lines where I felt there hadn&#8217;t been too much innovation yet, and it was about to explode. The chance of doing all that was too good to refuse, so I took it on,\u201d Orchard said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He\u2019s keen to explain that whereas some venture capital funds are focused on investment returns over the short to medium term, QBE\u2019s ventures arm is a strategic venture that aims to harness innovation to the group\u2019s benefit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOur role within QBE is to accelerate the delivery of the group&#8217;s strategic priorities by bringing the outside in,\u201d he said, adding that there are two pillars to this strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOne is the operational benefit: how can we partner with startups to help the organisation grow, to help improve margin and achieve some of its financial KPIs [key performance indicators]?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThen there&#8217;s a thought leadership aspect: how can we provide access to insights on new trends in emerging technologies; how can we help the organisation understand new strategic spaces; how can we shape strategy for the organisation to provide longer term opportunities,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>QBE Ventures\u2019 investments are typically in the $3m to $5m range, he explained, out of a fund of $100m, with QBE typically \u201can active partner\u201d, with a seat on the board to provide support and assistance, as well as a steer on strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Orchard emphasised that his approach does not start with searching for startups, but rather by looking at existing challenges within QBE\u2019s underwriting teams \u2013 such as Davis\u2019s global cyber practice \u2013 and then matching these with emerging technologies that can accelerate solutions, narrowing the field to find the right partners to work with and invest in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe find times when a number of startups don&#8217;t quite have what we want, but if we bring everything together, then we can co-create or build something that&#8217;s unique,\u201d he explained. \u201cIt\u2019s exciting that we have the ability to create commercial structures, joint ventures and partnerships that allow us to have a combination of build, invest and partner \u2013 all together.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The latest Voice of Insurance podcast instalment features two senior executives working together on technology in different ways: Serene Davis is Global Head of Cyber&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6594,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[14],"line-of-business":[24,20],"class_list":["post-6643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-podcasts","tag-underwriting-workbench","line-of-business-cyber","line-of-business-property"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.advantagego.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.advantagego.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.advantagego.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.advantagego.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.advantagego.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.advantagego.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.advantagego.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.advantagego.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.advantagego.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.advantagego.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6643"},{"taxonomy":"line-of-business","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.advantagego.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/line-of-business?post=6643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}