Ep317 Jason Keen CEO Wholesale & Specialty Everest Insurance: No time to be stuck in the middle

Mark Geoghegan (0:03)

I'm Mark Geoghegan, and you're listening to The Voice of Insurance podcast, produced in association with AdvantageGo, now part of Sapiens, enabling enterprise scale underwriting through a single pane of glass.

Today's podcast is a really strong conversation with someone in a significant strategic position within the global facultative reinsurance, wholesale and specialty markets. That's because across 26 business lines, with platforms in the US, London and Singapore, they run a business that is closing in on $4 billion in gross written premium in 2026 Jason Keen is the CEO of Global Wholesale and Specialty at Everest Insurance, and given his broad viewpoint of the market, this discussion gives a very accurate picture of where we find ourselves at this interesting point in the pricing cycle. What emerges is a market where the most skillful underwriters are going to be able to differentiate themselves, and one where caution and a focus on margin is the order of the day in some segments, but in others there are still clear opportunities for growth. But it's after the day-to-day market questions have been dealt with that this discussion really comes into its own. Jason is an advocate of the digital revolution that is transforming the globally syndicated insurance market in which his business operates. And our discussion around facilitation, fast follow, and other digitally enhanced forms of underwriting is insightful and enlightening. It's becoming clear that all business leaders now need a comprehensive strategy on how to engage with profound structural changes in the way business is being placed. And Jason is eloquent and unambiguous on this theme. Our broad and frank discussion also covers other emerging big themes, such as nascent AI exposures and plenty more besides. Jason is an underwriter through and through, and this makes for a fast-moving and lively exchange. I can highly recommend a listen.

Enjoy the podcast. Jason, welcome to The Voice of Insurance.

Jason Keen (1:59)

Thanks, Mark. Very much appreciated.

Mark Geoghegan (2:01)

For anyone who's out there listening who doesn't know you, we'll do what we do in insurance when we meet someone we haven't met before. One, you can tell me how you got into insurance, and then two, run us through your career to date and brings up to date.

Jason Keen (2:13)

I think like most people, I sort of fell into it. My uncle worked for a large, sort of, broken house and sort of over a barbeque on my mother's birthday, he ended up having a conversation about it, and it sounded like a good idea. I looked into it and actually found a lot of friends who were going through sort of graduate schemes at various other broken houses and insurance companies.

I managed to get an introduction to a syndicate within Lloyds, and that's where I really started my career. I actually worked for two Lloyds syndicates in London, the second of which I then moved to Singapore in 2007

Mark Geoghegan (2:39)

Wow, and what were you underwriting?

Jason Keen (2:41)

Underwriting property. That was sort of the basis of my underwriting career, was writing first-party PDBI risks.

Mark Geoghegan (2:46)

Well, it's sort of the earth.

Jason Keen (2:48)

Well, exactly. It's very simple. Your property is property, isn't it?

Mark Geoghegan (2:52)

Other than BI is actually far more complicated than anyone would imagine, and I remember as a member, floating stock adjustments were a complete nightmare, and no one understood them as far as I was aware.

Jason Keen (2:59)

No, it certainly is. I think that's always been the bane of any property underwriter who's trying to establish exactly how to calculate a BI loss.

That move then took me to Singapore, where I was for a couple of years in the same company move for the United States, for a couple of years to set up offices both in Singapore and in the US. Then I returned to Singapore where I was for 10 years to join a major global insurance company, which then became a bigger global insurance company as two large companies emerged and integrated. Then I came back to London about six years ago to run the wholesale division of that business, and then five years ago I moved to Everest to come and build a business.

Mark Geoghegan (3:33)

Here you are, so you're fully up to date. That was pretty quick.

You're running Insurance, Global Wholesale and Specialty. Run us through that. What does that entail because that could be quite broad?

Jason Keen (3:43)

It's a good question, I think. A lot of people say we understand the words because we speak English, but what does that actually mean to Everest? To us, that really means we took a deliberate decision at the end of last year to really focus on our wholesale specialty business. That really is a North American business, an international business, and a faculty of reinsurance business. The divisions that sit within these three businesses have been trading for at least a decade.