David Hampton (pictured) has taken the helm at insurance technology company BAIS, and here the new chief executive shares what he is looking forward to, what’s at the top of the agenda, and what challenge lies ahead.
“When I first walked into BAIS, I saw we were providing a great product and had an amazingly experienced team based right here in Sydney,” Hampton, who came onboard last year as general manager, told Insurance Business. “There is so much opportunity to reach more industry players and develop the company. I’m genuinely excited about the future for BAIS and the additional value we can provide the insurance industry.”
The name behind insurance system iBAIS, the Australian enterprise has been providing technology solutions to the insurance industry for about three decades now under the leadership of managing director Jim Armstrong.
The owner, who will remain an active figure within BAIS, noted: “Having spent 30 years leading the company, I have decided to take a step back, and David has shown that he is ideally suited to the position of CEO. The series of improvements to our operations, sales, and client service capabilities that he has already made demonstrate David is the perfect person to keep driving the company forward.”
Hampton, meanwhile, revealed that his arrival less than a year ago “was always part of the company’s succession plan” for Armstrong’s camp.
“We are making changes, where needed, to get us all focussed on customers and ‘making it happen’ in the real world,” stated the new boss, whose priorities include partnering with underwriting agencies. “I am excited about what BAIS offers to customers and how we can extend our value proposition.”
“Underwriting agencies are the biggest innovators in the insurance industry,” he went on to assert. “We are all about helping them get their products and innovation to their market as quickly as possible with the least amount of pain. Over the years, we have configured most general insurance products to work on our platform, from quote and bind all the way through to the trust and general accounting ledgers.”
The challenge, said Hampton, is having the right people in the right seats.
He stressed: “Our skill set needs to support our corporate strategy. Having people with insurance and technology skills is hard to find. We are lucky at BAIS because we have some real ‘rocket power’. We just need to get more horsepower on the ground.”
Meanwhile, it was disclosed that the business has been talking to a number of prospective insurtech partners, with announcements imminent in the coming months.
Hampton told Insurance Business: “We look for products or platforms that are complementary to ours, meaning we can provide better end-to-end solutions. iBAIS is an extremely robust, reliable chassis and drive line. Some things will never change. The debits will always need to equal the credits.
“We are looking for strategic partners that do things that we either can’t or don’t want to do. Modern innovation cycles are all about open architecture and collaboration, and we are committed to exploring some really exciting opportunities over the next few months. Watch this space!”
