UK & Ireland

Lewis Goodearl

Head of UK & Ireland Casualty

I’ve worked in the London market since 1992, including at XL Group, Liberty Mutual Insurance and Ace Europe. That means I’ve seen first-hand the underpricing of casualty products over the last decade – including in the UK and Ireland.

The casualty market is now in transition and we think it might be about to harden a little more. So it felt like a good time to join a company that can offer something different to clients and brokers.

At Convex, we’re starting with a blank piece of paper, which is really exciting. I’ve turned around an underperforming function before, but I’ve never set one up. It was quite a lure. And who wouldn’t want to have the opportunity to work for Stephen Catlin and Paul Brand?

The opportunity to build such a strong team was another draw. Between the five of us, we have XX years of combined casualty experience. Add that to the strength of the Convex brand and you have a very attractive proposition for clients and brokers.

Who we do business with

Our client base is quite varied because we cover so many different types of business. Unless we’re writing a big Formula One name, our clients are mostly small-to-medium-sized businesses of between £5 million and £50 million turnover. Because they’re growing, these companies want to take on more of their own risk.

That means we get involved with some interesting niches. For example, we’ve written a binder for trust arboriculture, which is essentially a tree surgeon facility. Within that, we cover forestry activities and plants and machinery, like chippers and logging machines.

We’re also developing strong relationships with managing general agencies (MGAs), to help us access smaller businesses. With these as with all our relationships, our aim is to build for the long term.