Portfolio Manager

We have an exciting opportunity for a Portfolio Manager to join the Markel team in our London office. The PDS (Portfolio Development Solutions) team is a multi-functional empowered, creative and autonomous team within Internationals largest Underwriting division, Wholesale. It is embedded within the underwriting business and is represented within the Wholesale Leadership Team. Its focus is on the areas that are critical to achieve profitability and performance targets for a specialty lines insurer: Portfolio Management, Data, Analytics and Insights and Pricing Model development.

The primary function of this position is to assist in providing valuable insights, solutions, services and operational improvements across Wholesale Markets through the use of data & insights. Activities will include portfolio data analysis and analytics projects, creating tooling and visualisation solutions and automation of data flows. Key partners will be Wholesale Underwriting, Underwriting Divisional Managing Directors (DMDs), Managing Director of Wholesale and the Actuarial function. You will get to collaborate with the rest of PDS who use pioneering data management, business intelligence and technical pricing in market leading programmes and technology.

The PDS team provides support to the following Divisions within MINT Wholesale:

• Cyber writes many differing types of business and industry areas for cyber coverage.
• Energy provides coverage on a worldwide basis for all aspects of upstream, midstream and downstream oil and gas activities as well as renewable energy.
• Equine provides coverage for Bloodstock and Livestock risks worldwide.
• Marine provides coverage for liability, hull, war, terrorism, specie and cargo risks worldwide.
• Professional and Financial Risks (PFR) underwrites business worldwide and covers traditional and emerging professional indemnity, management liability, financial institutions as well as specialist risk areas such as patents and libel & slander.
• Trade Credit, Political Risk and Surety (TCPRS) underwrites a variety of trade and investment-related risks using expert knowledge of commercial counterparty and country risks across a wide variety of trade sectors and geographies.

What you'll be doing:

• Provide support for the implementation of active portfolio management across Wholesale Markets
• The Divisional Managing Directors (DMDs) and underwriters remain accountable for portfolio management and ultimately profitability within their teams. This role will be responsible for making appropriate recommendations and improvements to ensure the DMDs are equipped to actively portfolio lead their divisions
• Actively monitor the key drivers of performance, at a class level across the Wholesale portfolio, to support DMDs in improving performance and driving remedial actions where necessary. This will include both the open market and delegated business
• Supporting the coordination of the quarterly business planning process, with active monitoring of performance against plan throughout the year. Set up standardised Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs) and ensure they are aligned with the business planning process
• Make recommendations and assist with Underwriter training on portfolio management techniques, at all levels, and work with the Training and Development team to ensure a programme of work is followed
• Develop strategic analytics, tools and insights to optimise portfolios and enable more thoughtful underwriting decisions. Be an advocate for the use of data to support decision making
• Collaborate by sharing knowledge and experience within the team, as well as working with other Support Units which include but are not limited to - actuarial, underwriting operations, ITS, delegated and underwriting support services to resolve issues and support the achievement of PDS and wholesale business priorities
• Represent the PDS team, as appropriate, providing accurate and timely management information to MINT leadership, wholesale leadership and meetings as required

Our must haves:

• Have outstanding communications skills along with strong data visualisation skills for disseminating management information to various levels across Markel
• Have demonstrable experience in influencing and engaging with partners using effective communication and ensuring consensus
• Possess a strong technical actuarial skillset, with the ability to independently problem solve and put forward underwriting strategy recommendations
• Be able to clearly articulate complex strategies, techniques and ideas to senior leadership and underwriters across multiple product lines
• Possess both strong analytical depth, the ability to independently problem solve and put forward recommendations
• Have an understanding of the Wholesale products, classes of business and operations of the specialty insurance market
• Have a proven track record to successfully lead and deliver to agreed timelines projects and initiatives that require involvement from business leaders across the company
• Possess a detailed solid understanding of the Microsoft office suite, with a focus on Excel and become comfortable with manipulating and analysing large, complex sets of data
• Experience with data visualisation programmes, database use (SQL) and an awareness of advanced analytics/data science would be desirable but not essential

Who we are:

Avencia Consulting are an RPO who provide a recruitment service to our client Markel International.

Markel Corporation (NYSE - MKL) a Fortune 500 company with over 60 offices in 20+ countries, is a holding company for insurance, reinsurance, specialist advisory and investment operations around the world.