I am honoured to have been elected as President of the BII this year following in the footsteps of
Sue Glynn who very kindly asked me to be her deputy last year.
I hope to prove worthy of the position and to be effective in promoting the work of the CII in the Birmingham area.

 

I have worked in Wolverhampton (come on you Wolves!!) for 19 years, and for a time served on
the Council of Wolverhampton Insurance Institute before it was wound up, so let’s hope that is
not an omen! I have spent the whole of my working life in insurance, firstly for over twelve
years as a Loss Adjuster and subsequently for fourteen years running an Underwriting Agency.
Like most of us I never had a youthful desire to work in insurance, but it seems to have been
in my blood as my father spent most of his working life in the profession. Now I cannot
imagine doing anything else. The variety of challenges and opportunities within insurance
is staggering and there are very few (if any) other professions that can rival it for the
breadth of career opportunities available.

 

Qualifications are a vital part of developing a career in insurance and an important part
of the work of the BII is to help our members to achieve examination success. The Chartered Insurance
Institute provides a wide variety of study materials a
nd exams relevant to the skills required in today’s profession. The economic climate will remain
very tough over the next year and a commitment to professionalism will help to set us apart from others.

 The BII is also involved in charitable fund raising. Much of this is carried out by our Young Members,
who work exceptionally hard organising a variety of fun events.  Firstly we raise money for
The Insurance Charities, the only charity which helps those who have worked in insurance but now find themselves in difficulty. A visit to the web site (www.theinsurancecharities.org.uk) is well worth it.