SHA Specialist Underwriters has appointed Simon Colman as the new Head of Commercial Liability Underwriting, with effect 1 March 2016. Colman has been part of the SHA team for 18 months in the position of Underwriting Executive responsible for the Underwriting Management Agency (UMA)’s digital strategy.
Colman, who has been working in the insurance industry for almost 25 years, says that this appointment is the highlight of his career. “The liability division sits at the core of SHA as it is a part of the original business unit that Tony Stalker and Angus Hutchison started in 1985. I remember when I started in insurance, if you were interested in liability business, you aspired to work at SHA. You can imagine how excited I am to be able to lead such an incredible team here especially in an era which has seen the company grow significantly to be the largest specialist UMA in the country.”
Colman will be replacing Wayne Griffiths following his imminent secondment to Malaysia to drive the specialist insurance rollout for Santam Niche through the Sanlam Emerging Markets companies in the region. “Griffiths left a great legacy that I hope to build on.”
The commercial liability portfolio at SHA is large and complex but I am very fortunate to have a great team consisting of real professionals, says Colman. “As the Head of Commercial Liability I will endeavour to guide the team towards achieving our overall objective, which is to deliver excellent service and innovative products to brokers and their clients. My core objective will be to ensure that the team contributes to SHA’s reputation as being market leaders and pioneers in the liability field.”
He also has a big interest in technology so he will be implementing tools to ensure that the technical underwriting processes flows as smoothly as possible. “Overall I want all brokers to have an amazing experience every time that they deal with SHA.”