Finance Monthly CFO Awards 2017 Winners Edition

About Ryan Gill Ryan Gill, age 34, is Chief Finance Officer and Executive Board Director at multi-award winning UK General Insurance Group Limited. Having joined the business in 2006 as a management accountant, he completed the CIMA qualification and progressed through a variety of senior finance and management roles across the business before joining the Board in 2013. During his career at UK General the business has grown its gross written premiums from £130m to £380m and profitability has grown significantly under Ryan’s tenure as CFO from an EBITDA loss in 2013 to £11m EBITDA in 2017. Ryan has been instrumental in this growth, building a reputation amongst colleagues, investors and stakeholders for his innovative and commercial approach to problem solving and strategic vision. In May 2017, UK General was acquired by US private equity house JC Flowers & Co for a substantial figure. Ryan played a pivotal role in the process from initial concept and preparation of the business for sale, through to execution of the transaction. This involved preparation of the Information Memorandum for market, successfully delivering management presentations to interested parties and finance providers and managing an intensive due diligence process. In his first 12 months in role as CFO and working with the Group CEO, Ryan extracted UK General from its former group structure to be managed as a stand-alone business and raised £15m of external financing, enabling the business to repay long-term shareholder debt and invest in growth initiatives including people, technology, and insurance distribution capability. Further financing was secured in 2016 to support delivery of ambitious strategic objectives. Ryan is passionate about innovation and the need for business to embrace change to grow and prosper, balanced by essential understanding of the regulatory environment and customer outcomes. With a keen interest in the digital and fintech arena, UK General has invested heavily in technology and innovation, including a new insurance distribution platform, and in their evolution to a ‘virtual insurer’, challenging the traditional insurer model by removing unnecessary costs from the value chain and establishing strategic reinsurance partnerships to combine first class capital with underwriting excellence and distribution. Prior to the separation of UK General, Ryan sat on the Board of a wider group of insurance distribution businesses as CFO including Rural Insurance Group; a niche agricultural insurance business based in Harrogate. Firm Profile UK General Insurance Group Limited is the largest specialist Managing General Agent (MGA) in the UK market, offering specialist and niche insurance products and schemes to a vast range of personal lines brokers and trading partners alike. With over 60 products and 650 schemes, UK General is the leading provider of specialist and niche personal lines products and the number one schemes brand in the UK. A £380m Gross Written Premium business located in Leeds, England, UK General operate as an MGA with delegated insurance capacity reinsured by Munich Re, combining multi-channel distribution capability with underwriting excellence to deliver profitable returns on a true risk and reward basis. UK General provide a vast range of clients across the UK with its range of personal lines insurance products including motor ancillary, travel, property, warranty, personal accident, leisure & lifestyle, income protection and financial loss, distributed in a variety of ways which can be tailored to an exact specification. With an established profile in the insurance industry, UK General has Gold ‘Investor In People’ status and is the proud winner of the Insurance Times ‘MGA of the Year’ award two years’ running (2014 and 2015). It also won ‘The Digital Transformation Team of the Year’ in 2016. By endorsing its position in the market, UK General is often referred to as a preferred supplier of specialist products because of its strength, flexibility and specialist knowledge in the sector. In abiding by UK General’s motto of ‘specialist as standard’, customers are at the heart of the business. The company boasts a customer retention rate of 97%, maintaining that open communication has resulted in continual and long-lasting client relationships. The MGA offers several ways to trade including schemes, white-labelling, affinity partnership, and online e-trading which offers customers the flexibility to trade as they wish. Guided by remarkable talent and investment in people, UK General continues to grow where other high-profile MGAs have failed. Through specialist knowledge, customer focus, and exceptional leadership, UK General continues to pave the way for new and existing trading partners as it offers flexible opportunity to fill product gaps in the market. Areas of Expertise Ryan’s areas of expertise are focused on strategic vision and delivery, optimising business performance, leadership and communication. He believes each of these are essential to a successful organisation and the ability to create long term sustainable shareholder value. Ryan plays a key role in driving the business and financial strategy at UK General and excels in understanding and exploiting profit drivers and growth segments. He balances technical competence in financial and regulatory matters with a commercial view of factors impacting the business and the associated risks and opportunities. He adopts a collaborative and open leadership style and is a strong believer that motivated high performing teams are created by empowering people and teams through devolving trust and accountability. Ryan sees relationships management as a key component of his role and believes that open communication and engagement with all stakeholders is key to sustainable success. In addition to his financial responsibilities he is also responsible for investor relations, strategy and overseeing the Actuarial, IT, Product and Pricing functions of the business. Chief Financial Officer at UK General Insurance Ryan Gill Contact sayhello@ukgeneral.co.uk www.ukgeneral.com UNITED KINGDOM Finance Monthly CFO Awards 2017 28 www.finance-monthly.com