Steve Wilson Appointed as Consultant in Asia for Emerald
Steve Wilson has been appointed as an independent Consultant to Emerald to strengthen the Emerald team exploring opportunities in India, South East Asia, and selected territories in the Middle East.
A statement release by Emerald yesterday is quoted below:
“As you may recall, Steve left Emerald in the early part of 2013, and spent about two years in Thailand during which time he not only assimilated the culture of the region, but he also made a number of very useful contacts in the general insurance market.” says Bernie Ray, CEO of Emerald. “After a brief return to South Africa, Steve has decided to relocate permanently to Bangkok and when we heard that, it made all the sense in the world to bring Steve on board as our man in South East Asia.”
Steve is a very experienced property underwriter whose ability to put together innovative and solution driven insurance products for complex assets programmes was very highly regarded in South Africa and in the wider African and Indian Ocean Island context. During his almost nine years with Emerald, Steve helped the company grow from a newcomer with great potential, to an actual industry leader in its niche class of business.
“With our strong focus on geographical diversification into emerging markets in India, South East Asia, and the Middle East, I confidently expect Steve to bring to our business there, the same kind of effect that he had on our business in Africa” says Bernie.
Chris Potter heads up the Strategic Asian Project at Emerald and will oversee the underwriting aspects of the consultancy.
“Since finalising our Asian treaties during 2014, we have seen hundreds of submissions from these emerging regions. A lot of that business fits our business models and risk appetite and we have already written what we see as fairly significant premium across this portfolio. However our approach, as it was in Africa, is cautious, slow and steady. We have no pressure on growing premium at the expense of sound underwriting. Steve will fulfil an important role in building the trust relationships that we need, and in filtering the right risk mix to present to us for consideration. Naturally we are expecting that our policy uptake ratio will increase dramatically in this positive environment” adds Chris.
Steve will also consult for SHA, the casualty specialist business in the Santam Specialist Business portfolio.
“It’s my prediction that when he opens the doors for Emerald and SHA in the region, Steve will also present wider accessibility for all of the Santam Specialist product offerings. In particular there is a lot of potential for the Santam Specialist seamless product which provides multiclass cover for large infrastructure projects” concludes Bernie.
