Former Post publisher Timothy Benn passes away

Tim Benn was a talented and innovative publisher. He was chairman of the family publishing firm, Benn Brothers, for many years before striking out on his own in the early 1980s. He built up a portfolio of respected titles that required rejuvenating, a task to which he brought enormous energy and vision. This included Post Magazine, as well as UK Press Gazette and The Dalesman.

With Post he inherited a magazine that faced new challenges to its leadership of the insurance industry and looked increasingly like a publication from a past era. One obvious immediate need was a complete re-design of the magazine.

This task was handed to top magazine designer David Hillman of Pentagram who set to work on the daunting task of creating a new image for a magazine with such a long history and which was held in deep affection by its readers.

At the same time I was recruited from Insurance Age to provide a fresh approach to its editorial coverage and in September 1986 we re-launched Post. It never looked back and with Tim’s drive over the next few years we established an events portfolio, with the British Insurance Awards being the jewel in the crown, and embarked a wide range of bold initiatives, including establishing the All Party Parliamentary Group on Insurance & Financial Services in 1991.

Tim was tireless in his generation of new ideas, always challenging the people around him to aspire to new heights and never accepting than anyone had any laurels they deserved to rest on for long.

John Greenway, who as MP for Ryedale chaired the APPG  from 1992 to 2010 and became a close personal friend of Tim and his wife Tina, who survives him, said his legacy remains important today: “Tim understood better than anyone how essential it was for the insurance industry to create a closer working relationship with parliament. The events of the past 30 years from Lloyd’s reconstruction, to the changing nature of risk transfer, solvency and regulation have shown the huge value of Tim’s vision. The industry owes him a huge debt of thanks.”