Ep220 Hugh Sturgess: Define your appetites and live by them

24 minutes ago

I’m really pleased today because after almost four years of trying I have finally managed to get someone from the Arch Capital group of companies onto the show.

Arch’s appetite to make the most of market opportunity and react quickly to a lack of the same has led to long-term outperformance that speaks for itself.

That is perhaps just as well in a business that is really quite media-shy for such a substantial and well-regarded public company.

Numbers only tell a small part of the story and that’s why I’m delighted to welcome Hugh Sturgess, President and CEO of Arch Insurance International to the show.

Hugh’s division is a global operation that encompasses everything that Arch does in insurance outside of North America. It stretches from the London market to Bermuda and from the UK regions to Continental Europe and Australia.

The business has grown many multiples in the harder market of the last four years and now writes over two billion dollars in premium and employs a thousand people.

Hugh has been with Arch for 19 years, so is steeped in the Arch culture and way of doing things. As such this podcast isn’t just a guide to the opportunities Arch is seeing in the Specialty insurance markets in London and beyond.

It definitely is that – but I think if you listen carefully you can learn a few of the little things that add up to make a business like this outperform over long periods in many different market situations.

And Arch may be a little media-shy, but Hugh certainly isn’t – this is as fun and lively a conversation as I have had with anyone in a long time.