Ex-Axa leader David Williams joins Humn

Williams has been brought on to deliver “insight and counsel” to help Humn as it grows, invests in autonomous vehicle products and begins international expansion, the firm stated.

Humn, which was launched in 2018 and raised £10.1m in a series A round last year, has built a data-driven insurance platform and uses artificial intelligence and IOT streaming data to enable customers to manage the exposure of their vehicles on a daily basis.

Williams explained to Insurance Age that he officially started working at the business on 1 June but had already linked up with the firm beforehand including during meetings with brokers at the recent British Insurance Brokers’ Association conference in Manchester.

His introduction to the business came via Bill Cooper, chair of Humn, who Williams had known during Cooper’s time at Lloyds Bank and more recently at TigerRisk.

His first impression from researching online had been that Humn was just a motor fleet MGA, Williams detailed.

“Since I have got to know them I can see they are anything but your normal commercial motor MGA,” he commented.

“They are experts in the tech AI field. Normally that leads to a conversation that ‘we can be much better at pricing risk and risk selection’. They go beyond that in terms of genuinely trying to change the nature of the risk by influencing driver behaviour by liaising with the fleet manager or whatever.”

Road safety

During his time at Axa, Williams was highly prominent in discussions and developments around driverless cars and he pointed to the link with road safety.

“It is about causing less accidents which cause less claims but if you have less claims you have less injuries,” he detailed. “You make the world a safer place and what is not to like about that?”

In his view technology, across the full spectrum of driver assistance through to autonomy, will become more and more standard in the coming years.

“If you are going to be in motor insurance you have to be prepared for the risks of the future,” said Williams. “The understanding you will need in the future is not just about the human it is about the machine as well. The machine will become more and more part of the exposure.”

Critical mass

At the end of last year Humn bought Walsingham Motor Insurance.

That deal meant it has approaching £50m of gross written premium, Williams set out acknowledging the business was also having further conversations about more acquisitions.

“The investors can see the potential here and they have decent backing,” he stated. “If you are going to do some clever stuff with technology and data you need something to work on.”

In his opinion along with “critical mass” Humn’s current book gives it credibility and the opportunity to go to potential new customers and capacity providers to show what it has done rather than with just a theory of what it could achieve.

Roles

The appointment at Humn is Williams’ second NED post. In May Insurance Age revealed that he had joined up with Qlaims.

He has previously worked with the team on fundraising and he was also involved representing the firm at the Biba conference.

“[It’s] about adding to the confidence of investors as to the potential for the business,” he listed. “Hopefully people have a degree of respect for my views and know that I am not one to talk rubbish. I set great store by my credibility. I am adding to conversations about explaining the market.”

His involvement includes meetings on development and strategy.

“It is not just about a loss recovery insurance product,” Williams insisted.

“There are other strings to their bow in terms of technology,” he continued pointing to its work on video technology in dealing with claims and this being available to brokers.

Future

After 41 years at Axa, Williams has maintained that he will only take non-executive positions as he builds a portfolio of posts.

“I don’t want to let anyone down. I want to make sure I can commit and deliver and that limits the amount you take on,” he listed.

The plan is to work about two days a month at Humn however Williams stressed he was flexible on the workload: “I’m not one who is sitting there and watching my clock and saying I’m only going to do two days,” he underlined.

Since leaving Axa he has remained engaged with the insurer for five days a month. This was supposed to run until the end of June but has now been extended until the end of the year.

“Three to four non-exec roles plus Axa that would keep me as busy as I want to be,” he summed up.

Williams revealed that he was already speaking with another party and expected there would be a “a third non-exec role announced very soon”.

And his portfolio may include another similarity with his previous work at Axa.

Connected

During his time at the insurer he worked with the government’s Centre for Connected Autonomous Vehicles including on projects in Bristol and Milton Keynes.

While he made clear that he would not be a full time consultant or project manager he said: “I have been approached in potentially helping a ‘place’.”

Noting the need to be deliberately vague he concluded: “I have been approached to maybe help a town, city, whatever in pitching for some CCAV funding.”

The discussions may or not come to fruition and Williams made clear he would not be running any such pitch but could instead bring practical experience and understanding of the insurance requirements and potential legal changes and advise how that can be built into the pitch.

“That will be good as long as I can deliver on it and add some value,” he ended.

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