Building connections: Bronek Masojada on how he hopes to empower the local community in Sheriff’s role

Former Hiscox CEO Bronek Masojada has maintained an active presence in the sector since his retirement from the London-listed carrier at the start of last year, joining the Brown & Brown board and taking over as chair of SiriusPoint.

But perhaps his most significant appointment from an industry perspective is that of Aldermanic Sheriff, an ancient posting that traditionally serves as a stepping stone to being selected as a future Lord Mayor of the City of London.

Masojada, who has been appointed on a joint basis with former Hiscox and Lloyd’s executive Dame Sue Langley, met with The Insurer TV to explain the new role and what he hopes to achieve in the position.

“The role of Sheriff dates back over 1,200 years to the shire-reeve – he was the King's representative in an area of land, responsible for law and order and collecting taxes,” Masojada explained.

“Clearly, that's changed over time, so now the Sheriff of London is a more ceremonial position but with real convening power.”

Masojada said the position has three key roles.

Firstly, to support the Lord Mayor in promoting financial services, something that suits both his and Langley’s extensive insurance industry experience.

The second is to promote the work of the Old Bailey, linking back to the law and order role of the historic shire-reeve.

And the third key role Masojada and Langley are pushing during their tenure is to promote employability and attract talent to the City.

“I want to draw on the work I've done on the East End Community Foundation, where we support a lot of people and a lot of charities which help people into work,” he said.

Masojada also outlined his ambition to help connect firms that want to hire from neighbouring communities with local people who want to work in the City.

“If I'm also able to introduce a few hundred people to the work of the Old Bailey, that would be a good thing to do as well, and if I can help the Lord Mayor in promoting London, then clearly that's ultimately to our benefit.”

Digitisation and talent need to be in focus

Earlier this week, it was announced that former Inver Re CEO Steve Hearn is to succeed the long-serving Masojada as chair of the London market’s e-placement platform, Placing Platform Limited.

While discussing with The Insurer TV areas of the market where he’d like to see further change, Masojada said digitisation is certainly up there.

“I'm completely committed to the full digitisation of the London market processes. I think that is almost the minimum you need to be in the game in this day and age,” he said.

“And I think from that you can then project London around the world in a way that you can person to person, but if you can augment that with a digital trading platform that would be fantastic.

In addition, Masojada said there needs to be a constant focus on talent. “We can go on and on about talent and we should. We should be attracting talent from everywhere. I'm a South African, as you know, so I'm an example of somebody who's come to London to participate in that,” he said.

Watch the video in full to hear more from Masojada on what drove him to take on the role, his views on the regulator’s new secondary competitiveness objective, and the importance of the digitisation of the London market…