Last month, the managing general agent (MGA) incubator Pro MGA Global Solutions announced that it will welcome Haris Khan as head of solutions and markets. Joining on November 01 from Lloyd’s where he served as delegated underwriting manager, Khan is a coup of a hire for the team – one which reflects its ambition to reshape the conversation about talent in the MGA sector.
In discussions about talent in insurance, it’s all too easy for the spotlight to fall on newly emerging talent – how to attract it, how to retain it and how to make the most from it. But that’s only half the story – and the future also belongs to those already some way into their insurance story.
In a recent conversation with Insurance Business, Emily Lewis (pictured), business development representative at Pro MGA Global Solutions, highlighted the importance of nurturing and attracting top talent – at every stage in their career – to the growth of the MGA sector, generally, and to Pro MGA Global Solutions, specifically.
There’s no one way to create great talent pipelines, she said. As somebody who started in Pro’s Insurance Services team, before moving into its Consulting arm and later into the Pro MGA business, she has seen first-hand, the power of home-grown talent. “But there are other routes. It’s not just about people who are already in the industry but thinking about how we can attract people into the industry too. This was brought home to me recently when we brought in a few people of school age for work experience.
“And it’s such an important conversation and one that I’ve been having a lot while attending next-generation initiatives, talks and forums. One of the running themes is how to make the industry a bit more attractive to young people. When you talk to anyone about how they got into the industry, the common theme is that they tend to either have fallen into it or they knew somebody who worked in the sector.”
There’s so much that is attractive and interesting about the industry, she said, but what’s important to bear in mind is that the same things that should make insurance a career destination of choice are also what should encourage people to develop a meaningful career in the industry. Central to that is the wealth of opportunity that being part of an insurance group brings.
The capacity to switch verticals, to change direction and to find new career pathways is critical as evidenced by Lewis’s own varied albeit short career. “I’ve already seen the spread of opportunity possible, which has been great because you couldn’t imagine you would get exposure to so many different business areas. I think that’s really great, particularly for young people because nobody genuinely knows what they want to do when they start out in the world of work.”
The appointment of Khan is a clear reflection of the myriad of opportunities represented by an insurance career, and the work Pro has done to attract and nurture great talent. “It’s establishing us as a company able to attract top talent, who can come in to support us in our growth and our facilitation of MGAs, as an incubator. One of the key things that we’re doing is expanding our global footprint.
“So, [Haris Khan] will help us expand into new global markets because we need to pursue that market growth to complement our territorial growth. We already have a presence in the US but we’re looking to really expand that and then gain physical presence in LATAM and the Middle East over the next year or so. And Haris brings his real expertise in how to enhance your market offerings across different territories.”
Lewis shared that what has become clear from her involvement in so many different talent and diversity initiatives is that one of the best things about championing diversity is the ability to build a business comprised of different perspectives and experiences. Diversity of experience is something truly valuable, she said, because it’s the key to innovation.
“And that’s our focus, to nurture and attract talent in order to build a business fit for the future,” she said. “We want to be a place which is attractive to people wherever they are in their careers. We don’t want to be a service provider that sits in the background, we want to be attractive to senior leaders but also be nurturing to the leaders of tomorrow.
“From the outside people don’t necessarily understand how attractive insurance can be as a career option but it’s when you’re in that you realise how much opportunity it brings. It’s a conversation that we’re passionate about and I’m pleased to see that the wider market seems to be passionate about it too. I think it’s a bit of Pandora’s box (in a positive way), you don’t know what’s in there but when it’s open, you understand, and you can see what it offers.”
