2024 Speakers

From Watchdog to Strictly, from the World Cup to the Olympics, Chris Hollins is recognised as one of television's most popular and versatile sports, news and factual entertainment presenters.

Chris is probably best known for being the runaway winner of Strictly Come Dancing 2009; the only contestant to never be in the dance-off and he took part in the Strictly tour in 2010. His iconic Charleston routine was featured in a countdown of the show's 25 most memorable dances in the Strictly Christmas Special, as voted for by the public. Chris remains a regular guest on the Strictly spin-off show It Takes Two.

Chris currently hosts and produces his series Golf's Greatest Holes, which is shown by 36 broadcasters, including Sky Sports, Bloomberg and NBC Golf Pass; reaching 189 countries and 1.5 billion households. The first season of the popular six-part series followed Chris and former Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley as they travelled around Ireland and Northern Ireland playing their favourite golf courses while taking in the beautiful Irish scenery. The second series based in Portugal premiered in April 2023. Both series are available to view on Sky Sports and on demand via NBC's GolfPass subscription service. In July 2020 Chris produced FORE, a series for Sky Sports Golf presented by Tour star Tommy Fleetwood, featuring golf's funniest videos.

He regularly hosts his own shows on BBC Radio Berkshire and previously co-presented the BBC's flagship consumer rights series Watchdog as well as outdoors gems like Secret Britain for BBC One.

Chris was the main sports reporter for BBC Breakfast from October 2005 to March 2012, on air Monday to Thursday mornings as well as a regular co-host of the show. In Summer 2012 he was back on the breakfast sofa co-hosting Olympic Breakfast for BBC One during the London 2012 Olympic Games. Prior to Breakfast, Chris was sports presenter for BBC News 24 and also reported for Grandstand and Football Focus. He began his career at Sky Sports in 1994, followed by spells at Channel One, GMTV, Meridian and Channel 5.

His previous presenting credits for BBC One include The One Show, Food Inspectors, Real Rescues, Cash In The Attic, Dirty Tricks Of The Tradesmen and The Great British Weather. He has hosted history series Find My Past for Yesterday and BBC Two's arts series Show Me The Monet.

Chris was part of the BBC's presentation team covering The Royal Wedding and several of The Diamond Jubilee events, live for BBC One. He has also participated in Celebrity Antiques Road Trip for BBC Children In Need and took part in Sport Relief's Top Dog for BBC Two with his pet dog Winnie, where they stole the show!

Chris was a main presenter for BT Sport (now TNT Sports) for a number of years, having hosted live coverage of the Women's Hockey World Cup, the Men's Hockey World League Semi-Finals and previously hosted the FIH Hockey Champions Trophy, the Singha Premiership Rugby 7s Series, Aviva Premiership Rugby, BT Sport Score, SportsHUB, Moto GP and Boxing Tonight.

A talented sportsman from an early age, Chris played youth football for QPR and Aldershot. His father, the late great John Hollins MBE, was the former Chelsea, Arsenal, QPR & England footballer and manager of Chelsea and also Swansea FC. After graduating from Tonbridge School in 1989, he attended the University of Durham and later Oxford University where he gained Blues in both cricket and football. He took part in Sky One's The Match, playing a full 90 minutes on the celebrity side.

Chris is a keen golfer, playing off a seven handicap and is President of The Oxfordshire Golf Club, close to his home in Henley-on-Thames. In July 2021, he won the Celebrity Pro-Am at the Staysure PGA Seniors Championship at Formby, amassing 46 Stableford points to secure his place in the Grand Final in Mauritius at the end of the year.

Chris has appeared in a cameo role as a newsreader in the feature film Run Fat Boy Run; an experience that he thoroughly enjoyed.

Dave Martin joined Aviva in April 2023 as Managing Director, UK Commercial and Chief Distribution Officer, and sits on the UKGI Executive Committee. Dave is responsible for setting and leading the strategic direction of Distribution and responsible for driving profitable growth in our UK Commercial business across Digital SME and Mid-Market.

Dave has spent 34 years in the insurance industry in a number of roles, having started as an apprentice handling personal motor in Bristol. Most recently Dave was Head of Retail Management at Zurich where he led the Personal Lines, Direct, Digital and Mid Commercial businesses.

Sarah joined AXA UK in October 2021 as Commercial Distribution and Trading Director. In this role she leads the Commercial distribution team responsible for broker relationship development across all trading teams and the mid-market business traded through AXA’s branch network.

With over 20 years’ experience in senior claims and distribution roles, Sarah has a passion for delivering customer and broker excellence through digital transformation, technical expertise and broker partnerships.  This has helped  AXA achieve a gold Investors in Customers award (2023) and 2024 Commercial Insurer of the year at the coveted British Insurance Awards.      

Nick Hobbs became the Director of Broker Markets, Commercial & Personal, in November 2016 having formerly been the Head of Strategic Account Management, Commercial and Personal. He is responsible for Allianz’s London Region, Broker Distribution Management and jointly responsible for the Commercial Broker Markets business.  

Nick has been with Allianz group since 2001 and with Allianz UK since 2011. Prior to joining Allianz UK he undertook various roles in AGCS (Allianz Global Corporate & Speciality) in the UK, Europe and North America.

Jo Sykes is the divisional director of UK broker channel for Markel, with a clear focus on driving digital transformation, developing broker relationships, and delivering profitable underwriting results. With a wealth of experience in the industry, her commercial focus is a key driver to Markel’s growth ambitions and ongoing dedication to better support brokers and customers. Jo has the responsibility of delivering Markel’s innovative SME products and services, helping brokers achieve business-changing growth for their customers, backed by a 5-star rated commercial lines insurer with a truly people-first approach.

David is Distribution & Proposition Director at RSA Insurance, working across the Commercial Lines and Specialty Lines businesses, in a role he started in May. Prior to this he was Head of Strategic Broker Relationships, Marketing & Propositions at NIG Commercial.  David has over 35 years’ financial services experience in both insurance and banking, starting his career with Commercial Union (now Aviva) followed by spells at Independent, Nationwide Building Society, Bank of Ireland, and Aspen.  David is a Chartered Insurer and in his spare time enjoys travelling with his family and the ups and downs of supporting Aston Villa.

Lisa has 30+ years of financial services experience including roles at RBS and Credit Suisse. Lisa’s responsibilities as a regulator, including with predecessor organisations, IMRO and FSA, have primarily been in supervision, covering investment management, deposit takers, life insurance and most recently general insurance firms. Lisa has led the Retail General Insurance Supervision Department during the implementation of the General Insurance Pricing Practice rules and Consumer Duty. 

Gareth is the Head of Distribution for Travelers’ European business. He joined Travelers in March 2024 and has oversight of distribution across Travelers Syndicate Management (Syndicate 5000 at Lloyd’s); Travelers Insurance Company Ltd; and Travelers Insurance Designated Activity Company.

Gareth has more than 25 years experience in the insurance industry. Most recently, he worked at RSA Insurance where his responsibilities included overseeing the Mid-Market and Specialty businesses in the UK, managing the European Risk Managed business, and leading Specialty and Wholesale practices globally.

Following his time at RSA, Gareth served as Chief Commercial Officer on the board of a private equity-led company, which was successfully sold in 2021.

David was appointed to head of retail in January 2023 and is responsible for our Personal Lines, Commercial SME and Mid-Market propositions. 

David's been with Zurich for over 20 years and joined our Executive team in 2026 as our UKGI Chief Operations Officer, before moving to our UK Claims team as Chief Claims officer in 2017.

David's breadth of strategic and operational expertise, strong customer and broker focus, and passion for continuous improvement, whilst using technology, has resulted in great customer and broker outcomes in the roles he's held at Zurich. 

Before joining Zurich, David spent time at Aviva and held several senior positions. 

Liam Green is the co-founder and COO of Capsule. Capsule is specialist insurance broker to impactful and high-growth businesses. Capsule is supporting some of the UK’s most innovative and ambitious companies with their insurance needs.

Paul has been an insurance broker for over 30 years and is Group Chief Executive Officer of Seventeen Group, which owns James Hallam Insurance Brokers, Touchstone Underwriting and London Re

Seventeen Group is passionately independent and employs over 350 staff throughout the UK. All of the shareholders and Directors of Seventeen Group are actively involved in the business and from the insurance profession by background.

Paul was previously a BIBA main board member and Chaired the BIBA Insurance Brokers Standards Committee. He currently sits on the board of Una Alliance which is a non-profit making company owned by its insurance broker members.

Outside of business, Paul is married with 4 children and lives near Devizes in Wiltshire. He has been involved in coaching and leadership training on a voluntary basis for a number of years and is a Saracens rugby supporter, fisherman and sometime golfer.  
 

David joined BIBA’s main Board in August 2023 following his appointment as Regulation Director.  He has more than 40 years of experience in the insurance industry and since 2002 has focused on insurance broking compliance. During that time David led a group's firms through FSA authorisation, as well as providing technical compliance advice to over 150 firms, from the international to the very small, on UK regulations.

Joining BIBA in 2013, he brought a 'regulatory mindset' to his role, having spent a number of years at the Financial Services Authority.

With 15 years’ experience in the (re)insurance industry, Ying is a global risk leader who drives commercial innovation. She has served in various leadership roles in natural catastrophe risk management and pricing, first with reinsurance broker Willis Re, then Gallagher Re, expanding her horizons to lead climate change and sustainability client solutions in recent years. Ying has a BSc in Environmental Science from Sydney University, Australia, and is a Sustainable Finance graduate of the Cambridge Institute of Sustainability Leadership. She is currently pursuing an MBA at Bayes Business School to explore the integration of sustainability into corporate strategy.

I'm an independent Sales Agent, working with Insurance Brokers, acting on behalf of, and in the interest of sellers.

I own and run Critical Friend Partnership, in addition to helping sellers to find the right buyer, I also work with two dozen high quality independent brokers and have a proven track record of helping them to turn their ambition into reality. I love what I get do, with some truly amazing clients.

Nick is Director of the London/Head office of The Clear Group. Clear are a leading UK independent and chartered insurance brokers, placing in excess of £300M of premiums for commercial and personal clients. With 19 UK locations and over 650 staff, Clear offer a comprehensive insurance advisory service, from insurance program design and risk management to claims administration. Nick has over 28 years' experience as an insurance broker and adviser, specialising in the construction and engineering sectors. He has advised on the insurance requirements for many well known businesses, for major London and UK infrastructure projects and manages 11 broking teams, both in the Company market and at Lloyd's.

Arran specialises in cyber liability and data risk and is a part of Kennedys’ breach response team, where she deals with incidents including ransomware and business email compromises. Arran routinely advises insurers and corporate entities across a variety of sectors on all aspects of incident response, including regulatory investigations, data subject obligations and resulting data subject litigation. She is often involved in multi-jurisdictional breaches in conjunction with Kennedys’ worldwide offices. Arran also advises clients from a wide range of industries in relation to data privacy and the application of the legislative and regulatory framework to their operations.

With experience in the industry spanning 30 years, Scott started his career at a local brokerage in Doncaster via a YTS scheme. He has built significant industry knowledge and connections through several regional and national roles and has worked in the network arena for more than 13 years.
Prior to joining Bravo Networks, Scott spent eight years working in Towergate in several senior sales roles. As Managing Director of Bravo Networks, Scott prioritises supporting regional brokers across the UK by using his significant relationships with insurers and providers across the industry to drive forward positive opportunities, while also shaping member propositions that help grow, protect, and support brokers’ businesses.
 

Paul Farmer is the Head of Technical Risk Engineering and Surveys at RiskSTOP.

Paul has 30 years experience in the insurance industry and began his career as a loss adjuster before moving into risk prevention, management and engineering. He has held key roles, such as Global Practice Lead and Senior Technical Risk Engineer at Zurich and was a Senior Consultant Risk Engineer at Tokio Marine.

His expertise in risk management is complemented by a passion for developing soft skills among colleagues, enhancing risk mitigation strategies. Paul is committed to innovation and team development at RiskSTOP, and is widely recognised for his knowledge of emerging issues such as solar panel fires, EV charging and li-ion battery risks. 

Paul founded The Green Insurer in 2023 after realising that there was a gap in the market for people who want help to drive in a more sustainable way.  The Green Insurer is the only car insurance provider to off-set all miles driven and to reward customers for driving in a more sustainable, fuel-efficient manner.  Prior to this, Paul has spent far too many years working in the insurance industry in companies such as Direct Line, Marmalade and Chaucer in both UK and overseas.  Outside work, Paul loves the great outdoors and he walked the 284 miles of the Pennine Way in 2020.  Whilst not working, he is kept busy by his 5 children.

Damian is CEO of MLP, a business specialising delivering operational Machine Learning products to the Insurance Industry.

He has worked in the Insurance Industry for over 18 years both as a Broker, an MGA as well as launching and growing Insurtech businesses.

Managing director of Render an innovative payment solutions business, providing card processing and premium finance to the insurance market. Previous roles include Head of Data Science at Capital on Tap, Associate Partner at McKinsey & Principal at Oliver Wyman. I have worked with a global set of clients, from banking to retailers, providing strategic, analytical and technological support. I have a PhD and MSc in Complexity Science, and a BSc in Mathematics, all from the University of Warwick

With over 25+ years in insurance technology, Peter heads up the Research and Development function at Open GI. Prior to this, Peter was at Transactor spearheading numerous innovations including The Insurer Cloud. Peter has a strong philosophy of fostering a culture of innovation and experimentation,  empowering customers to push boundaries and use technology to solve real problems.

Chris is the Managing Director for Cyber at Travelers Insurance. Responsible for growing the cyber portfolio and ensuring its place in offering a market leading product supported by first class incident response, and pre loss service proposition. With over 20 years of experience in the insurance industry, Chris has worked with some of the largest specialist carriers in the market. Prior to joining Travelers Chris was a Cyber Product Manager covering UKI, Continental Europe, Latin America and Asia Pacific providing expertise and gaining insight into Cyber Insurance markets worldwide

Paul Cullum is Director of Strategy and Innovation for HSB Engineering Insurance, part of Munich Re, responsible for new product innovation and distribution strategy.

Paul joined HSB in 2004, undertaking roles in business development, major risk underwriting and product development. Paul was HSB’s Director of Specialist Risks Manager from 2020 until his promotion to his current role. Prior to joining HSB, Paul held various roles within sales, underwriting and marketing for National Vulcan and RSA Engineering.

Paul has over 35 years’ experience in the engineering insurance market. He has led HSB’s development of a number of market-leading insurance solutions in areas as diverse as machinery inherent defects, renewables, energy efficiency and cyber. In addition, Paul has presented on the topic of underwriting innovation for the CII and energy efficiency for the UN.

Jonathan Evans is a seasoned insurance industry professional with over two decades of experience in broking, underwriting and insurtech. As the founder of Sustain Insurance Brokers, he is at the forefront of integrating Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) principles into insurance practices. With a strong background in risk management and a keen eye for emerging trends, Jonathan has successfully launched and scaled multiple insurance-related ventures. Jonathan's current focus on sustainable insurance practices positions him as a thought leader in addressing climate change risks and promoting social responsibility within the industry. His diverse experience and entrepreneurial spirit make him uniquely qualified to discuss the evolving landscape of ESG in insurance and its impact on brokers' strategies and their resultant profitability

Harry started his career at Arthur J. Gallagher later joining Aplan Insurance as an Insurance Advisor and progressing to New Business Sales Manager at the Poole office. Since then he has been introducing the concept of Gamification to insurance companies across Europe. During his speaking session expect to hear recent data around employee engagement insights and modern strategies for motivating your employees to their full potential.

Nick started his career at Eagle Star in 1989 and moved into broking in 2001.  In 2005 he joined Towergate and over 7 years enjoyed several roles including running Towergate’s Network Division.  

In 2012 Nick decided to return to his broking roots by joining JM Glendinning.  

In November 2020 Nick led an MBO from the Glendinning family backed by growth investor SYNOVA.  So far JMG Group has invested in 37 brokers, with Group commission and fee income now exceeding £60m and with 650 colleagues across 36 offices.    

Out of work Nick’s time is spent with his wife and 2 children, golfing, painting and gardening.   
 

Luke Perkins is an accomplished insurance professional and is the Commercial Director at Gambit Insurance Solutions and its subsidiary Mode Insurance.

Luke plays a pivotal role in driving the company's growth and overseeing client relationships. With a focus on delivering tailored insurance solutions by building both insurance products and distribution systems such as D2C quote journeys for freelancers, charities, and not-for-profits, he leads on these specialisms to ensure that customers receive expert guidance and coverage that suits their specific needs.

Prior to joining Gambit, Luke built a strong career in the insurance sector, holding key positions in both partnerships and broking at organisations such as Aon and BHIB. Luke was named as the winner of the Insurance Age Broker Apprentice in his previous role, as well as being an operational member of iCAN (The Insurance Cultural Awareness Network), supporting over 9,000 members with the iCAN recruitment platform.

Alexander Margolin has over a decade of experience in the industry, having spent 6 years at the largest insurance company in the world, Allianz, prior to founding his own brokerage, Sioma in 2018. During his time at Allianz, underwriting mid-corporate property and casualty risks in the City of London, Alexander completed his insurance professional exams to become a Chartered Insurance Broker. He was recognized by the industry and awarded Young Underwriter of the Year at the Insurance Post Underwriting Services Awards in 2015. Most recently, Alexander was named one of the top 24 talents under the age of 35 in the UK insurance industry by Insurance Business UK and won the coveted Broker of the Year (under 35) award from the industry trade body – the British Insurance Broking Association.

Matt Hicks is the co-founder & CCO of Recorder. Recorder is a modern software provider to commercial insurance brokers in the UK.

The name Recorder was born out our mission to enable brokers to record data once and never re-key it again. 

Following their acquisition of Romero Insurance Brokers, Simon was appointed Head of Regions for Assured Partners UK, in June 2024. 

In addition to this, Simon retains his position as Group Managing Director of The Romero Group with a commission income of £23m since 2008.  Simon has worked with Justin Romero-Trigo (Founder), Victoria Romero-Trigo and the rest of the management team for over 16 years joining the business when it had a commission income of just over £3m.  

Prior to joining Romero Simon held various positions within AXA Insurance including National Schemes Manager and Regional Manager for the Leeds area.  Having started as an ‘A’ Level Trainee in the commercial administration department for Provincial Insurance in Haverhill, Suffolk. 

While at Romero Simon co-founded an Insurtech business called Booking Protect which offered event and theatre goers a ticket insurance product if they were unable to attend.  Before selling the business in July 22 he was able to secure many worldwide clients including Ticketmaster.  

Simon is passionate about customer service and people.  Keeping and winning customers is the heart and soul of any business.  However, having the best people that are motivated and enjoy what they do is the only way to deliver long-term results and fantastic service for our customers.  

Simon also works closely with BIBA siting on the Large Broker Advisory Board.  Outside of work Simon is a big motorsport watcher and Tottenham Hotspurs fan.  Simon is married with a 14-year-old daughter and lives in Leeds.