Rebecca’s journey into specialty insurance was driven by her desire to work whilst studying and has been guided by her attraction to all things nautical. Being a Sea Scout growing up has now led to her being someone many shipowners turn to in a time of crisis.
“Working in the London insurance market was something of a fluke” said Rebecca. Having studied arts subjects at A Level, she did not know what she wanted to do at after, so decided to look at apprenticeships as an alternative. “I searched on the national apprenticeship website for opportunities in financial services that paid enough to pay for my car insurance. A lot of applications went nowhere but you only need one – and I got an interview with an insurance company”. After a phone interview in the Homebase carpark during her lunch break, she was invited back and landed a role in claims operations at Chaucer – one of the insurers in the London Market.
“As insurers, we do our best to pay when things go wrong , so handling the claim well is the foundation of our very business. I have specialised in ships and their cargo – which is where insurance started nearly 400 years ago, so it’s great to feel so connected to the foundations of the industry. Maybe it was living in Dartford where I could see the ships on the Thames or being a Sea Scout – but this is specialism I really love”.
. Rebecca supports clients in steering clear of pitfalls and dealing with the aftermath of accidents . “I always try to put myself in the shoes of the person who may experience the accident” said Rebecca. “What could go wrong? What precautions should they take. For many of our clients, they will only experience these incidents very occasionally, but because we sit in the middle, we get a lot of exposure from other clients that we can share”.
Rebecca has worked for three different insurance businesses, working her way up the career ladder, and is now a Senior Claims Hander within the Marine, Energy and Aviation team at IQUW. “Insurance has a lot of smaller, specialist businesses, so you get to enjoy working in a culture that is much more friendly and social while still being part of a world leading market, I bump into people I’ve previously worked with every day. We get to see extraordinary things – when I first started there was a jewellery theft by the Pink Panthers at the Cannes Festival worth over $100 million, I thought it was only a cartoon! You see the unexpected and the intriguing and that is the joy of being in claims”.