Diary of an Insurer: Marsh’s Kasia Lipinska

Monday

While UNC6040, Shiny Hunters, and Scattered Spider may sound like the latest superhero squad, they’re actually cybercriminals, wreaking havoc on unsuspecting corporations. 

From our London office, I’m hosting an hour-long morning call for around 200 colleagues working with me in the automotive and manufacturing sector, to deep dive into Marsh latest white paper New Wave of Cyberattacks: Key Lessons. 

I spent last week speaking with our claims and insurance cyber experts, aligning our capabilities to advise our automotive and manufacturing clients on how to protect themselves around cyber security. 

With insights and intelligence from our cyber and AI experts, I can arm the team with the information that can support our clients, of all sizes, against these digital villains and hopefully prevent, or reduce, the impacts and costs from cybercrime.

After a lunch break, I’m a panellist on an Affinity roundtable held at our office on electric vehicles. Our clients are looking for answers and advice on extended warranties and EV charging infrastructure, including a risk management view on battery technologies – a topic that’s positively electrifying.

From there I am heading to a meeting with a major insurer to brainstorm ideas for a new manufacturing insurance product for UK small to medium enterprises. It’s getting dark quickly, so after that I will head to the station to catch the train back home for dinner with my family.

Tuesday

Driven by the need of decarbonisation against a backdrop of geo-political events, supply chain risks are becoming a major focus of our risk management consulting strategies. 

With that in mind, today I am at a regional forum of one of the trade bodies that we work closely with supporting automotive and manufacturing communities. 

Some regional forum attendees met Marsh at the national automotive conference in June at the Birmingham NEC where we had a stand and many colleagues attending. 

During the conference I had the privilege of speaking on the main stage for a session discussing the automotive state of the UK nation. In the discussion we covered many areas including supply chain issue, trade credit, cyber-attacks, EV’s, and labour skills shortages.

If I were in the London office this evening, I would have gone in the evening to a Pilates class, but today I have to rush back for parents’ evening. 

My girls are now 15 and 16 and both doing their GCSEs this year. They both have pretty good self-discipline and are self-sufficient with two working parents. Up until lately we’ve had a pretty chilled approach to education. However this is the year of exams, and we are feeling overwhelmed by the expectations put on parents.

Wednesday

Off to our Birmingham office by train where I’m joining a colleague for a client meeting to discuss their needs in this very challenging economic and geopolitical environment. 

I teamed up with a Mercer automotive industry leader to elevate the conversation beyond insurance. One of the areas we have recently worked on and launched brings together mental health training, employee benefits, and career solutions in a combined solution for the automotive sector that we call “Diversity in the Driver’s Seat – Accelerating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Automotive Industry.”

On the train, I’m joining my industries leadership team weekly meeting via Zoom. 

There are over 30 industries at Marsh supported by the client insights and enablement team. 

We discuss and update each other on our engagements with clients, markets and innovations that we drive. It is interesting how healthcare’s leaders are bringing AI and automation webinar for care providers; technology and construction leaders are setting up data centre proposition alive; and the retail industry team are launching Marsh’s retail leaders report. 

In automotive and manufacturing we are focussing on workforce solutions and supply chain resilience using our proprietary tool Sentrisk. We are also finalising an external campaign around the trade credit.

Just as a cherry on top, we’ve officially announced that we have rebranded to Marsh. Gone is the Marsh McLennan – now it’s sleek and snappy, bringing all our capabilities of Marsh, Mercer, Oliver Wyman, and Guy Carpenter under one banner.

Thursday

A day of contrasts. Today I accompany my wife to her chemotherapy appointment, as she is battling breast cancer with the grace of a warrior. 

The chemotherapy drug “Red Devil” is being administered to my wife with a nurse watching. 

I wish I could run a marathon or bungee jump to raise more awareness and support, but for now, I’m holding down the fort with our teenage daughters and cheering on my superhero wife. 

There is surgery and radiotherapy available in the long term, and I can reflect on our fortunate position. My management team has been incredibly supportive, allowing me to juggle work and family life. I even heard from my UK CEO asking how we were and if there was anything else the company can do to support me.

I appreciate that working in the insurance industry we are allowed to make informed choices about our family’s health and wellbeing insurances and protection. 

Subsequently I’ve became a vocal advocate for colleagues, friends, clients to actively check their employee benefits and asking if choices they are making are appropriate in case of a critical illness.

And just when I am at the hospital with my wife, Tessa, a global call from the MMC business Oliver Wyman in Dubai pops up about a secret project. How secret? You may never know. 

I chose to join it, and the Wi-Fi here is surprisingly better than at home. Tessa enjoys watching me multitask. Later I am driving us back home and waiting for the girls to come home from school. A home-cooked dinner by our neighbour is waiting on the hob.

Friday

Here we are – the end of the week! I’m off to present on the supply chain at a luxury brand manufacturer’s stunning office. At times like this I do feel I have a dream job. 

During our presentation, we are engaged in the conversation on Women in Automotive and in Manufacturing. My colleague from Mercer is on the UK Automotive Council committee for people risks so I will definitely be wanting to discuss more with her when the meeting is over!

When I am ready to unwind, I see in my diary an invitation for the next week’s call ahead of the Autumn Budget, which we are hosting a client webinar on. While the risk landscape is vast, not every risk applies to every business. We always try to understand the risks are our clients facing, and what can we do about them.

Back home and a time for a walk in the countryside with the dog and to have time to ponder: should I let my girls go to a party of a friend met via friend of a friend on Snapchat?! Geo-political conundrums seem to be so much easier in comparison!