Melissa Collett (pictured) has no qualms in describing the five years she has spent with the Chartered Insurance Institute (the CII) as “an incredible journey”.
It has been an adventure that has taken her up and down the breadth of the UK but also overseas. Having the opportunity to visit colleagues based in the Far East and speak at conferences in places including Singapore, Malaysia and Las Vegas had been incredible, she said, and she has relished every opportunity afforded to her in her role as the CII’s executive director for professional standards.
“I have loved the people I've worked with,” she said, in an interview with Insurance Business. “And I’ve built an incredible team, which has been through some challenges and ups and downs to emerge really strong and solid and ready for the future. With the arrival of our new CEO Alan Vallance and the creation of our new five-year strategy, I was so pleased to see that ‘highest professional standards’ is one of the key pillars of the strategy and to know that everything I’ve been working on for the past five years is going to be carried forward in that.”
Touching on some of the key milestones achieved during her tenure, Collett noted that when she came to the CII, the major task at hand was to review and update its disciplinary rules and processes – no mean feat for an organisation over a century old. These changes meant ensuring that the institute could properly monitor and enforce sanctions on members who breach its code of ethics, she said, and out of that came the CII’s Independent Review Pool (IRP).
Another standout moment in her CII career was the complete overhaul of the CII’s corporate Chartered status designation. This included new rules and eligibility criteria, a new look and a new Chartered ethos, she said, and she led it with one goal in mind – to make the CII’s corporate Chartered offering more modern, relevant and diverse.
“But I think the thing that I’m most proud of is introducing a new Chartered title for underwriting agents,” she said. “[MGAs] are such a significant part of our sector but we previously had no Chartered title for them. We wanted to give them that brand recognition and empower them to join our community of best practice firms so we worked with the MGAA and created the new title which was launched in March 2020. That was a huge milestone for us and one that’s been growing ever since.”
Each of these professional milestones has been a real metric of success, Collett said, but on a more personal note, she’s very proud of the work she has carried out around digital ethics. Back in 2018, when the insurtech movement was gaining traction, she campaigned for the CII to be on the frontline of ensuring that the evolution of AI and digitalisation was done ethically and responsibly. As a result, she convened the Digital Ethics forum in 2018, comprising some top experts in insurtech as well as representatives from BIBA and ABI, an insurance lawyer and an ethics expert.
“Together, we drafted the new Digital Ethics companion which was published in 2019 and has received great acclaim,” she said. “Not only has it been cited by the UK Government Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation as an example of good practice for the insurance profession but we were also invited to contribute to a World Economic Forum paper on digitalisation in financial services
“[…] And it was because of that guide that I was invited to join the advisory board of Innovate UK and take part in an expert mission to the US about the future of insurtech with Innovate UK and the Department for Business And Trade, which is something that I’m incredibly proud of.”
Looking to what’s next, Collett emphasised that she will be looking to further develop her non-executive portfolio and explore new avenues and opportunities both within the insurance profession and beyond. She has a lot of irons in a lot of fires, she said, and is passionate about continuing her journey of promoting and protecting professional standards across a wider set of organisations, rather than limiting this to just the insurance profession.
However, she noted that she remains committed to the insurance sector, and will continue to actively work on its behalf when it comes not just to promoting professional standards but also encouraging younger and more diverse talent into insurance careers. Boosting women’s career opportunities and supporting their progression at every level of insurance and financial services has long been an area of focus for her – and she will remain an ambassador for this cause going forward.
As to why the time is right to leave the CII, Collett highlighted that she sees the job she set out to do as completed. When she joined in 2017, she was the very first professional standards director ever appointed by the association. She built that function up from scratch, she said, embedding it deep within the very DNA of the CII, which is why she now feels so confident in handing on the baton to her team to take it forward.
“When I think about the future of professional standards in insurance, it is pleasing to see that you’ve got the leading professional institute for insurance adopting professional standards as a key pillar of its strategy for the future,” she said. “So, I think it’s safe to say it’s going to be high on the agenda for the institute as well as the profession as a whole, because I know our team will be doing its level best to make sure those objectives are being delivered across the sector. And that goes beyond the UK to the insurance profession globally, and the CII has the opportunity to do that as such a well-recognised global institute.”
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