Whisper it quietly, but while Victor’s US president Tim McDougald (pictured) may boast the energy of a rising star, he is very much an insurance veteran with family ties and more than three decades at Marsh under his belt. Yet there is a reason for his youthful exuberance – having been installed into his present role in April, he is refreshed and ready to take the business to new heights.
“There is a great awareness from Marsh McLennan that this jewel of a company called Victor, that’s done very well over time, has perhaps been a little under-watered and under-nourished,” McDougald said. “This company, which has really great programs and really great people, now has a massive opportunity.
“When you think about the growth of MGAs – premiums for MGAs doubled from 2019 to 2023 – there is a lot of activity around the space. Now it’s about taking what Victor is today and growing significantly.”
Highlighting that the company already works with 22,000 agents in the US alone, there is no plan to change names or switch to the Marsh brand. However, with only 4% of the $4 billion in GWP that Victor underwrites coming from Marsh, the firm is, according to McDougald “a little light”, and is likely to work closer with Marsh in the future in order to seek new programs and potentially open up new opportunities to the company’s trading partners and producers.
Among the programs already being worked on, McDougald revealed, is one for renewables, as well as one on surety, a mid-tier builders’ risk offering, as well as a miscellaneous E&O proposition. “We’re going to use Marsh and MMA [Marsh McLennan Agency] to build revenue out of the gates and drive client value,” McDougald explained, “but they will all be programs open to all of our producers.”
Alongside the organic growth opportunities and the closer ties with Marsh, McDougald wants to see Victor grow through acquisitions. “We are certainly going to be a bigger player on the M&A side of the business than we have been,” he shared.
Part of the nourishing of Victor, he explained, will involve investing in targets that “will be a good fit for Victor.”
As for what those targets look like, McDougald noted that there isn’t “one thing” that the company is looking for – and instead it is “wide open”. “Victor has a great brand,” he explained, “but we can broaden that brand even more as we grow. It’s going to grow in the US, internationally in a big way, and it’s going to be fun to take that ride.”
While making the jump from broking giant Marsh across to Marsh McLennan’s MGA arm Victor may not seem, to an outsider, like a massive leap, McDougald noted that the businesses, while connected, are vastly different.
“The only thing not dramatic about it [the change] is that it’s in the family,” McDougald said. “It’s a totally different animal. The cultures are similar – both are family oriented and people work together in teams. But it’s a different business. I used to bring clients to insurance companies – as a casualty broker or a business leader – but now I’m trading with insurance companies in a very different way.
“I am looking at ways we can create a program, how we can deliver world-class underwriting on their behalf, and provide value to their balance sheet while doing something interesting and new. It’s kind of cool to be on this side of the business.”
McDougald believes he will benefit greatly from his lengthy tenure on the broking side noting he is “proud of the time” he’s spent in the industry and the fact it’s all been in one place. Having hit the 35-year milestone in insurance in July this year, he noted his pride in encouraging a new generation into the business, particularly having got his own start in part thanks to his Dad who, working for a competing company at the time, helped him secure some early interviews during the economic downturn of 1989.
His tenure included spending the first 10 years of his career as a casualty broker, initially out of New York City. He went on to enjoy stints as a client executive, racking up some “pretty large accounts at a young age” and building up an understanding of clients’ risks. From there, he spent time in Morristown, New Jersey, and later in Boston, which he calls home today, in the position of managing director – New England operations leader, the role he held immediately prior to moving across to Victor.
“It was very satisfying to go to a totally different environment [in Boston] and bring my own brand to that environment,” he said. “We changed the culture and made things more open. I felt pretty good about that – it was time for a different type of leader and the time was right for me to go out there.”
Now he’s hoping that the time is also right for his move to Victor - and while the company may not need a cultural change, McDougald’s big ambitions are sure to set it on an exciting new path.
