Ep126 Jonathan Zaffino President, Ascot Group: We don’t believe in big bets

Jonathan Zaffino, President of Ascot Group is one of the industry’s great thinkersAscot is one of the Lloyd’s Market’s most successful underwriting outfits of the last 20 years and Jonathan is leading that group’s expansion into the key US market.But his style of expansion is not an aggressive kind that pursues growth by taking big bets. It is a far more nuanced and subtle approach and one that recognises some of the big secular changes that have taken place in the insurance market over the last two decades. Behind the detail in our discussion lots of big themes are lurking. I enjoy how our conversation can start with specifics on trends in areas such as delegated authority but quickly change gear and end up encompassing much loftier themes such as the disaggregation of the insurance value chain as a whole and the advent of new far more mercurial forms of capital provision.Ascot is a business with a strong identity and market presence and we talk about how the firm is looking to distil and preserve that culture as it grows, evolves and seeks new ownership in a fast-changing market. Listening back the most common word Jonathan uses in this podcast is Candidly.And that is apparent all the way through our discussion. This is what he really thinks about the challenges and opportunities in the market today.Learning what the market’s finest minds really think about the world is what this podcast is all about, so I can highly recommend this episode to anyone seeking inspiration and enlightenment. LINKSWe thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo:https://www.advantagego.com/We also thank this Episode’s advertising supporter Oxbow Partnershttps://oxbowpartners.com/