Adrian Rands is co-founder and chairman of the data analytics insurtech , Quantemplate . An avid kite surfer with an appetite for the natural world , he tells us what inspires him in insurtech today
FIVE MINUTES WITH ...
Adrian
Rands
Adrian Rands is co-founder and chairman of the data analytics insurtech , Quantemplate . An avid kite surfer with an appetite for the natural world , he tells us what inspires him in insurtech today
Q . WHO WAS YOUR CHILDHOOD HERO AND WHY ?
» As a child I didn ’ t really have heroes as I was always more focused on my own hobbies and sports rather than following celebrities or the media . From a professional perspective I must admit my hero is Maurice “ Hank ” Greenberg , long time CEO of AIG and still the CEO of Starr Insurance at the spritely age of 96 !
Hank Greenberg , in my opinion , is rather unique in our industry in his ability to build a business like AIG into the leader in both distribution , through establishing a global network of local offices , and simultaneously constructing a fortress-like balance sheet with the lowest cost of capital . Clearly it was a herculean task to build the world ' s largest insurer and it ’ s telling that the delicate capital balancing act unraveled so dramatically in 2008 , just 3 years after his departure . I suspect Hank ' s assertive leadership , if he had remained at AIG , would have kept the Financial Products team in check , but who knows .
Much has been written about AIG , all with strong opinions . However , my favourite piece was the book “ The AIG Story ” co-authored by Greenburg . It ’ s a fascinating account of the 80 year journey of two men ( Cornelius Vander Starr and Greenburg ) building the greatest insurance company of all time . Well worth a read .
Q . WHAT ' S THE BEST PIECE OF ADVICE YOU EVER RECEIVED ?
» The best advice I ever received was from Steve Garnett , EMEA Chairman at Salesforce at the time and formally a senior sales executive at Oracle who helped grow the business into the 2nd largest software company globally ( as it was in 1996 when he left ).
Steve said “ Enterprise sales move at the speed of trust ” which is a quote he accredited to Marc Benioff . This is clearly sage advice for any industry , but I believe particularly pertinent to insurers . Most Insurance companies have a policy to minimise and mitigate risk from all areas of operation , except underwriting where it is tightly managed . This is clear from the highly conservative investment strategies adopted by most insurers , so it would be quite unreasonable to expect insurers to carry technology execution risk even if it results in slow adoption to innovative solutions .
At Quantemplate we have a rather unique approach to seeking trust , and this is by publicly publishing full details of every
20 January 2022