KBIS is a company made up of horse people for horse people. To help you get to know the individuals that make up team KBIS, we’re bringing you a specialist spotlight series. Who better to kick this off than newly promoted Executive Director, Lawrence Gill. Lawrence took over the reins at KBIS in December 2022. Today, we chat to him about his past experiences in both the horse world and insurance industry, as well as his future plans on a personal level and for KBIS.
Hi Lawrence, thank you for joining us today. Before we delve into your new role, please can you tell us about how you began working for KBIS?
I first came to KBIS in January 2012 on work experience. I did a month in total, 2 weeks in the scanning department and 2 weeks across the other departments helping with admin duties. There were no vacancies following this, so I returned to working as a freelance groom. In March 2012, a vacancy came up and Guy Prest [KBIS founder and former Managing Director] got in contact to let me know. I applied and here we are over a decade later
And the rest is history! So, how did your role develop over the years?
I started in April 2012 as a Policy Administrator in the Equine team which involved providing quotes, incepting policies, and answering customer queries. After about 6 months, a Policy Administrator position became available in the Liability team which I applied for. My application was successful and that was when my Liability insurance journey began. There were only 2 of us in the Liability department at the time and it is now a thriving team of 10! I did this role for about 3 and a half years and learned a lot about the insurance industry, Liability and Property products, and various systems.
I was then approached by a large broker based in London to manage the Liability and Property lines of business within their Equine department. Whilst there, I built up a great deal of experience from working with different teams. I had the opportunity to do some Lloyd’s broking, worked on a few really niche international projects, and was involved in bloodstock and livestock so it really widened my knowledge base.
How interesting! Tell us more about the accounts you worked on abroad…
On the Australian side amongst other big equine accounts, we placed the insurance for a pug worth AUD 30,000 and several poultry farms! In America, we did the insurance for some dolphins which I provided a small amount of support with. A fun fact about insuring the dolphins; the value we insured them for was based on the number of tricks they could do.
Who knew! How did your career develop from there?
After about 2 years, Guy called again and offered me a position as Liability Team Manager and a position on the board at KBIS, so I came back around February 2018. I spent a year managing the Liability team full time but as the business and team grew, there was more and more work in the other areas of my role, so I stepped back from my managerial duties to move into a leadership-based position. This centred around business development, compliance, and operations. Then Covid-19 came about! A huge chunk of my time was spent setting up the working from home project so we could keep functioning through the lockdowns. Part of this included updating systems and processes to allow our teams to work safely and effectively from home, ensuring we continued to provide as high a level of service as we did in the office. It was the push we needed to make KBIS greener by predominantly going paperless, a great thing for the environment but involved a lot of work to make it happen.
How did the lockdown impact the business and your role?
We saw a huge influx of business throughout lockdown, with lots of people purchasing new horses, or wanting to make changes to existing policies to accommodate a change to their business or financial position, so this was an incredibly busy time. It was a real challenge for the business as the teams were all adjusting to a new way of working yet the phones were ringing off the hook and emails were mounting up. Everybody dealt with it brilliantly though and were a real credit to KBIS.
This has led us on nicely to around the time KBIS was acquired by Specialist Risk Group. Did your role change at all as a result of this?
It did. Throughout the sale, I was heavily involved in the due diligence side of things which was really interesting. We hit the ground running when we returned to work in the new year of 2021 with the integration to SRG which was great. It was a considerable amount of work in addition to the ‘day job’ but it was fascinating, I learnt so much more about business function and the process of bringing the business into mutually beneficial alignment. My day job then progressed into a much more operational and strategic role.
And then most recently, you have become Executive Director. Congratulations! Can you tell us more?
Thank you. It’s a lot of responsibility and a big step up but I am really excited about it. KBIS is a company I know inside out and back to front. It almost seems as though all my experience in the insurance industry has set me up to be ready for this, with the time spent as part of a bigger group and having worked in each department here at KBIS somewhere along the line. I was even helping the Horsebox team in lockdown when they were inundated with requests, so I do feel as though I have a great understanding of all things KBIS.
It’s early days and there’s still a lot to learn but there is a huge amount of support available with being part of SRG and a super team at KBIS to help me take the business forwards. I feel confident that we are going to continue to build on what Guy and Liz have achieved over the last 30 years. I truly love KBIS, and ever since I started all those years ago, my friends have had bets on how many items of branded clothing I’ll be wearing when they see me!
It’s brilliant that the business is continuing to be lead by someone so passionate about it. What do you enjoy most about your role?
The part I love the most about my job is that it combines my passion and my career, which is something that people don’t always get. Especially when the passion is horses, it’s often thought that when you work with horses there is little progression, this is just the best of both worlds for me.
So, have you always been horse mad?
Absolutely. I got my first pony when I was 3, she was a Shetland x Welsh called Cheeky and was also 3. My mum rescued her from the back of a meat lorry and broke her in for me to ride. My brother then rode Cheeky until he got too big, and we kept her in the family until she sadly passed away when she was 19. My first job was mucking out for a yard in the village on a Sunday morning when I was 15.
I was lucky enough to have ponies throughout my childhood and was an active member of the Malvern Pony Club. Unlike my little brother (who swapped his pony for a skateboard at aged 11) the bug never went away, horses are still a massive part of my life outside of work.
If you could go back and give 15-year-old you one piece of advice about getting a job to kickstart a career that involves your passion, what would you say?
Oh, that’s a good question. I would say go and get as much experience as you can. Consider internships, grad schemes, and what I ended up doing which was work experience. Make time for it because you never know where it may lead or what doors it can open for you.
Can you think of a mistake you made early on in your career and what you went on to learn from it?
Yes, as a fairly new Policy Administrator, I took an incorrect payment amount from a client’s card. It was quickly resolved as I went to my manager at the time and a refund was issued, but I remember wanting the ground to swallow me up for accidently adding an extra 0 to the amount I was meant to take! What I learnt from this is to check, check, and check again, there’s no room for carelessness when you are dealing with people’s insurance, their money, and their livelihood. However, it is also really important to hold your hands up when a mistake is made and say ‘yep, I got that wrong’ rather than trying to hide something as it just becomes a bigger problem when it’s discovered further down the line. People make mistakes, its human nature and it is part of how we learn but owning those mistakes is key to making sure they don’t happen again.
And back to reflecting on now, is there a particular skill you are still working on nailing within your current role?
For me, it’s delegating, especially in this new role. I tend to hold onto things a bit whereas I have a great team of people around me who I trust and should utilise more. Another goal is to do my Diploma in Insurance with the Chartered Institute of Insurance.
It’s good to still be pushing yourself to develop further even though you have landed such a big role at KBIS. Is there a particular personality trait that you attribute your success to, and why?
I think I’m quite personable and that’s helped me to build relationships in the industry. There are a lot of contributing factors but part of the reason I’ve got to where I am today is having a network of people around me within the equine world and insurance world. People know people and you never know what opportunities will come from your name being mentioned!
This might be an obvious one, but what is your proudest moment in your career?
Well, getting this job is a hugely proud moment. It’s such a fantastic opportunity and a responsibility I take very seriously. There have been other, smaller moments I’ve been proud of along the way, but nothing that tops this!
And what are you most excited about for the future of KBIS?
I’m excited about continuing to build a strong, experienced, confident team of people that make up KBIS as well as continuing to grow the business. KBIS is a well-known, highly respected company within the equestrian world and I’m eager to continue to build the brilliant brand reputation KBIS has within the equestrian world. I’m keen to make sure that our clients are happy, that they trust us, and that they receive excellent customer service in all communication with KBIS.
What is excellent customer service to you?
It means that every person who has interacted with KBIS comes away fulfilled. We can’t always provide the answer people are looking for, but to have their question answered and explained promptly by a member of the team that understands the industry and their situation will always remain a top priority at KBIS.
Are there any trends you are experiencing or observing in the industry right now?
With inflation being at it’s highest, we are seeing rate increases with increasing frequency. Many of these impact on our horse insurance policies, as the prices vets are charging have gone up, so the value of claims has gone up, and therefore premiums charged have to go up to account for this. I think it’s important that we educate those affected on why we have to put rates up and that includes working with vet practices. An example of this is our partnership with the Horse Health Programme, offering discounted vet fee insurance to members of this scheme provided by CVS Group plc [owner of multiple equine veterinary practices].
To round this off, we’re going to throw 3 quick fire questions at you…
One thing you couldn’t live without? Coffee / Eric (one of my horses!)
Favourite time of year? Autumn = trail-hunting & pretty colours
Which rider past or present would you like a lesson from? William Fox-Pitt