Cometh the hour
Rod Fox has never quite fitted the model of a stereotypical reinsurance broker. His energy, enthusiasm and willingness to tear up the rule book in search of new solutions and innovation always meant he was somewhat at odds with an industry built around tradition and conventions in so many ways.
His energies helped shape large parts of the reinsurance brokerage landscape. Ted Blanch harnessed his skills at EW Blanch. During his time at Benfield, Fox’s relentless drive helped the company complete a series of high profile industry transactions, which grew the UK-based broker’s US operations tenfold.
When he formed TigerRisk Partners in 2008 along with another industry veteran Jim Stanard, few seriously doubted the venture’s long-term success, given the complementary skillsets and pedigree of its founders. But what they perhaps could not have foreseen was the extent to which the industry would start to change rapidly in the years ahead—and the way in which what it needs from brokers would change.
By luck or judgement that is exactly what happened—and is still happening. The risk transfer landscape is changing rapidly and the requirements of cedants along with it. The linear division of capital and the way it is used has been blown apart by an influx of capacity that is reshaping the industry to the core. Within this fast-moving dynamic, it is the innovative and flexible individuals and companies that are thriving.
Step forward Rod Fox. No longer constrained by a corporate and its traditions, he is free to shape TigerRisk to his own vision—informed by this wider shifting landscape where cedants want a different type of broker and a different type of relationship. Fox believes that eight years into its corporate life, with the expertise and infrastructure in place but not the constraints of sized and tradition, TigerRisk is perfectly placed to capitalise on this change.
“You could attribute it to luck and good design but the fact is that TigerRisk is now in the right place at the right time to capitalise on this evolution that is taking place in the market,” Fox says.
“People want much better, high-end advice from their broker that encompasses all forms of capital and risk transfer and much less in the way of simply placing business. That is what we have always striven to do; it is the basis of our model. For us, it is a very positive thing.”
Once in a career
The company’s growth is testament to this shift in momentum in recent years. TigerRisk has opened offices in Bermuda and Hong Kong this year, added almost 40 new experienced staff—so far—and, most important of all in many ways, brought in a capital markets team, which operates not as a separate unit or division (as in most other brokers) but which sits at the core of the company’s holistic offering to clients.
