Diary of an Insurer: Apollo’s Chris Moore

Monday

The patter of tiny feet from my three children, aged seven, five and three, wakes me, demanding breakfast at 6.45am. 

They climb on me as we hike downstairs, while my wife escapes the chaos to go to a fitness class. It is a beautifully sunny but cold day in Amsterdam. 

We moved here in September for my wife’s job. Being an hour ahead of London, I can get the kids to school while the Lloyd’s market still sleeps. 

We jump onto ‘Harry the Carry’, our Dutch e-cargo bike, and set off across the park. I get back to the house for 8.45am and then go for a run. The run ends with grabbing a coffee from my favourite café before getting ready for work.

My first meeting is with Apollo’s new chief information officer, Gina Gill. I then join our underwriting scrum, where underwriters discuss accounts being worked on. I love the collaboration and exploration of new innovative solutions for our clients.

Several catch-ups and our weekly Apollo underwriting leadership group meeting follow. The day finishes with a call with one of our largest mobility clients from California. 

We regularly meet with our insureds and embrace a mutual exchange of information, moving away from the ‘data vampire’ reputation of insurance companies of old, where the information is only one-way. 

Our data-driven underwriting approach means we take our insured through what we are seeing in the data, share insights and collaborate on ways to improve performance and mitigate risk.

I do the kid’s dinner, bath and bedtime, then get an early night ahead of my flight tomorrow.

Tuesday

I have the travel routine nailed, leaving my house in Amsterdam at 6.30am and arriving at the Apollo office in London by 8.30am. 

Getting the hour back with the time difference makes the commute very manageable!

Today, we host around 60 international brokers to educate them on our product offering. Georgie Penney from our team leads a fantastic presentation, and afterwards we host a few drinks. 

I then join one of our key brokers for a very overdue Christmas celebration. 

We are fortunate to be hosted for a wonderful dinner at the top of 22 Bishopsgate with a stunning view over the City. 

Wednesday

After my second run of the week, I start regular broker appointments to discuss upcoming renewals and new business. 

My passion for insurance is married with a love of the Lloyd’s market so whenever we approach brokers, we do so in a spirit of partnership with a shared challenge of: How can we bring more business to Lloyd’s?. 

I attend a working lunch with a broker and an underwriter from a different syndicate who write a line of business that we do not cover. We explore an opportunity to combine our unique products into a package that would offer clients something different. Lloyd’s is unparalleled when it comes to these types of collaborative client solutions.

Later, I meet with one of our largest clients to discuss performance and share insights. I finish the day with Q1 reserving. I leave the office feeling proud of the huge team effort in recent months and excited for the future. 

My wife is in London tonight, so we head to dinner together for a rare night without the kids.

Thursday

Today is the Apollo Townhall. We spend the day talking about our vision, the state of the market, new ventures, hires and developments. 

I love interacting with different people from across the organisation. Some new joiners introduce themselves and speak about their initial experiences. They talk about our unique and wonderful culture, which is fantastic to hear and one of the reasons I have been here for 13 years.

The townhall ends with remarks from our CEO, David Ibeson, who gives thanks for all the hard work and then sets our mission for the future. 

A lucky few head back to the iconic Lloyd’s of London building for [chair] Bruce Carnegie-Brown’s end of Lloyd’s tenure celebration. 

Whenever I set foot into the Lloyd’s Underwriting Room, I still get that sense of awe and wonder. It a real gift to work within an industry so rich with diverse opportunity. 

We must do a better job of advertising our fantastic industry so we can inspire the next generation and attract top talent, rather than people falling into insurance. 

We are treated to two fantastic speeches. First from the departing CEO, John Neal, and then from Bruce, with an impeccably delivered final speech. It is remarkable how much he has achieved in his eight-year tenure. He will be missed by the market. 

Friday

Friday is the quietest day of my week, so I try to block out the afternoons to reflect on the week and deal with any problems or outstanding tasks. 

This was something my chief underwriting officer, James Slaughter, mandated when I began reporting to him and it is now a diary entry I cherish. I complete some morning calls before the short flight home to Amsterdam. 

I pick the kids up from school and reflect on a hectic week with the sun on my face whilst the kids run around playing.