BIA Countdown: Young achievers look back: Q&A with Helen Merfield and Jon Nottingham

1. How has your career progressed since winning the BIA Young
Achiever Award?
Helen Merfield, independent consultant: Quite significantly. The year after winning the award I left my role at AIG MR to set up my own independent case management company. It launched in 2003 and is still going strong today.

Jon Nottingham, UK and Ireland sales distribution manager, Chubb: I left Axa after eight enjoyable years and joined Chubb, where I now head up sales and distribution for the UK & Ireland business. It’s a fantastic job in a fantastic business and I feel very privileged to be entrusted with it. So, all in all, my career is progressing very
well indeed.


2. What do you think have been the highs of the industry since you won your award?
HM: I believe it has moved on considerably. There is a far greater uptake of rehabilitation – hundreds of thousands of people have received the rehabilitation and support to return to work they would not have got 15 to 20 years ago. There is also much wider acceptance that rehabilitation and returning to work are as important as financial compensation.

JN: I would say the way the industry has performed through the economic environment is one. Also, the progression of chartered status and the drive towards a more professionally perceived industry.


3. And the lows?
HM: All new industries face challenges, but hopefully we have learnt from our mistakes, although there has been some occasional bad press, with rising costs and treatment drift.

JN: The payment protection insurance mis-selling scandal dented the wider insurance industry’s reputation. There is scope for the industry to take a more proactive approach to managing this type of situation.

4. What were the biggest challenges facing the industry when you won your award? Have they changed since then?
HM: The biggest challenge was getting claimants and defendants to actually talk to each other, as they were so suspicious of each other. This has changed enormously – there are a number of bodies, including the Association of British Insurers and International Underwiting Association’s Rehabilitation Working Party, which get together with a clear objective to make rehab work for the benefit of the injured party.

JN: There are many issues that were in play back in 2008 that still exist today – broker consolidation, distribution management and successful business management in response to changes in the economic environment, to name just three.

5. What is your best memory of the BIAs?
HM: Seeing so many familiar faces and being able to catch up with so many friends on the night – the atmosphere is great!

JN: When Rob Brydon picked out Paul Potts randomly from the audience and he pretended to work for Heath Lambert. I was the only person in the Royal Albert Hall who didn’t know who he was – I couldn’t believe that somebody from Heath Lambert could be such a good opera singer!


6. Who would be your dream BIA music performance?
HM: Dolly Parton is awesome live (but maybe a bit pricey!) 

JN: The Jam, led by the imperial Modfather himself for a one-time only revival.


7. The BIA is 20 years old this year. What were you doing in 1994?
HM: I was in the army, doing my post-registration year after qualifying as a nurse – and getting up to mischief, probably.

JN: Counting down the days until I could finish my GCSEs, leave school behind and start working; doing a very solid impersonation of Harry Enfield’s character Kevin the Teenager; and still coming to terms with England not being at the World Cup finals.

8. What would be the one piece of advice you would give to someone beginning their insurance career?

HM: I don’t think I am qualified to answer that question!

JN: Don’t get focused on managing your career. Work really hard, always try to improve, get a proven track record of success and your career will manage itself. People who focus more on their career than they do their own performance will – and do – fail.


9.  If you could give a BIA to someone, who would it be and what for?
HM: Hard question, but I am going to say Steve Eckhardt from AIG. He took a giant leap of faith not only in bringing rehabilitation to the employers’ liability market for the first time on a large scale (and getting involved very early when a claim hadn’t even been made), but he also took on a 27-year-old nurse who knew nothing about insurance and then let her set up a subsidiary company. It is because of him – and Arthur Lightbody, who has since retired – I am where I am today.

JN: There have been way too many influences on my career to pick one out. So my opt-out answer would be Andy Jackson, formerly of Countrywide Insurance Management in Peterborough, for taking a chance on a 16-year-old kid in 1995.


10. What challenges face the market now and how do you think it will respond in 2014?
HM: There has been some scepticism about the benefits and cost effectiveness of rehabilitation. However, both rehabilitation and case management companies have been listening to insurers about providing appropriate and cost effective treatment. 

JN: Underwriting discipline and excellent claims handling remain key challenges. Alongside these two fundamentals, it is those insurers which also have genuine sales capabilities that will be the winners in 2014; those without such capabilities will have a much tougher ride.


11. Finally, the most important question of all: where do you display your trophy?
HM: This is rather embarrassing – but it is the best doorstop ever...

JN: I gave the trophy to my parents, where they still have it on display – I think. My siblings have their degrees on the wall, but I have a BIA to fill my gap!

This article was published in the 23 January 2014 edition of Post magazine