Martin de Laubadère

Martin de Laubadère

Zurich Insurance
Head of Underwriting for Specialty Lines

In 2022, Zurich Insurance Group announced a business operating profit of US$6.5bn, a target above the expectations of previous years. The success has been evenly distributed across the group, but the P&C line – which is the main line for Zurich France – has performed particularly well.

Denis Stasinski, Chief Underwriting Officer for Zurich France, believes that since the COVID-19 pandemic “the global economy has experienced an accelerating transformation”. He also believes that we are starting to see the impact of climate change in both the frequency and intensity of Nat Cat events, which is something that Zurich will obviously have to analyse and adapt to.

Stasinski credits digital transformation, a focus on the latest technology and forging solid partnerships as fundamental parts of Zurich’s ongoing success.

Mathieu Pauwels, COO of Zurich France, believes the pandemic has unshackled the insurance industry from its previous reputation of being too slow to adapt to change – particularly when it comes to technology. “Technology adoption has increased at a faster pace and that's why I call it ‘digital acceleration’ rather than ‘digital transformation’,” he explains. “Digital has always been there, but now employees expect a different way of working in terms of tools and interactions with different people.”

As a result, the labour market has been in flux with employees re-evaluating their circumstances and the nature of hybrid working patterns changing the way that teams operate.

“Challenges post-COVID raised questions about how we needed to keep our employee engagement high,” explains Celine Garnier, Head of Liability for Zurich in France. “Zurich France wasn’t the only company facing this, but the way that we decided to try to tackle it was by putting in place a key initiative called People Engagement. We thought about ways to maintain the relationship between employees and between each other. Another aspect of that was how we maintained relationships with our clients and brokers.” Part of this new approach included embracing the hybrid model, which is now the main way that Zurich France employees work.

Martin de Laubadère, Head of Underwriting for Specialty Lines at Zurich France, says technology has been key in facilitating a more sustainable approach to products and services, as well as the way the group operates. “The integration of new technology is key for us within the client experience as we see it; it's true for Zurich France, it's true for the group. The main objective behind this is to propose simple solutions for us to be more intuitive for our clients and the corporations. Individuals working for these corporations will benefit from these services.” 

He says the importance of new technology has clearly grown over the last few years; it is an area where Zurich Group is happy to invest. The use of data is critical, but so too is the company’s approach to it and the digital platforms that process that data. “Historically, when we look at the relation between Zurich and clients, it has been limited to clients impacted by a claim and need for reimbursement,” de Laubadère tells us. “But today, we have changed this point of view; we now see the relation with clients as broader than that and consequently try to be present with our client, to accompany them much more in advance and look not only at the prevention of risks, but also the identification of trends.”


Read the full story HERE.

Zurich Insurance
Zurich Insurance
Our Partners
Share

Featured Interviews

Featured

Paul Swinton

Co-founder and Executive Chair at B4B Payments

We track the career of Paul Swinton, from founding BaaS provider B4B Payments to its launch in the US

Read More

Tongtong Gong

Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Amberdata

We speak to Tongtong Gong, COO and Co-founder of Amberdata, the startup delivering digital assets data into blockchain, crypto and DeFi, empowering FIs

Read More
"You have to be agile enough to gravitate to whatever needs your help the most, jump in and solve the problems you need to solve."
Tongtong Gong
Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Amberdata

May Govender

Chief Information Officer at Old Mutual Limited

Old Mutual has undertaken a transformation by migrating its entire IT infrastructure to the cloud, paving the way for leveraging data and AI innovation

Read More

Amnah Ajmal

EVP Market Development, EEMEA at Mastercard

Amnah Ajmal, EVP Market Development for EEMEA at Mastercard, details her financial services journey and urges young women to never give up on their dreams

Read More

Sandip Sahota

Chief Data and Analytics Officer at BMO Financial Group

SVP & Enterprise CDAO of the BMO, Sandip Sahota Leads with Passion, Enthusiasm for Data, and an Individualised Approach to Communication

Read More

Paul Swinton

Co-founder and Executive Chair at B4B Payments

We track the career of Paul Swinton, from founding BaaS provider B4B Payments to its launch in the US

Read More