Brit appoints Mark Allan as Ki CEO

~Ki leadership team established ahead of launch~

London, United Kingdom, 10 September 2020: Brit has appointed Mark Allan as CEO of Ki, the first fully digital and algorithmically-driven Lloyd’s of London syndicate, launched in collaboration with Brit Limited (“Brit”) and Google Cloud.

Mark has led the development of Ki over the last 18 months alongside Matthew Wilson and will now take on this pivotal leadership role to build the business and realise the ambitious strategy for Ki.

Mark has been Brit Group CFO and Brit Limited Group Executive Director since 2015, following roles as CRO and Director of Strategy since he joined Brit in 2010. Brit has commenced a search for a new Group CFO to succeed Mark in the role and allow him to focus on Ki.

Mark has played a central role working with Brit’s shareholders over the last decade to deliver its strategy and has led the development of Brit’s partnership capital vehicles over the last 5 years. Mark will retain his role as Group Executive Director, Brit Limited and will continue to play a central role in driving Brit’s strategy, including leading the group’s third-party capital vehicles (Syndicate 2988 and Sussex Capital).

Ki has also appointed James Birch as Development Director and Alan Tua as Portfolio Director, both reporting to Mark Allan. James will continue with his current role of Head of Innovation at Brit in addition to his leadership role with Ki. Alan joins from Direct Line Group where he was Head of Analytics and Data Science and will be responsible for developing Ki’s underwriting algorithm.

This follows the recently announced appointment of Dan Hearsum who joins Ki as Managing Director. Dan joins from his role as the Head of Placement in London at Marsh.

Matthew Wilson, CEO of Brit commented: “Ki has established Brit at the forefront of innovation and has the potential to transform the Lloyd’s market and the wider insurance industry. Mark has played a fundamental role in the development of this vision since day one. We’re therefore delighted that he will be moving into the role of CEO, leading the business and enabling Ki to realise its ambition to redefine commercial insurance.”

Mark Allan, Executive Director at Brit and CEO of Ki, commented: “Ki’s launch marks a pivotal point in the digital transformation of our industry, and I’m delighted to be appointed as CEO. We have assembled a world-class team within Ki and in our partnerships with Google Cloud and UCL, and we have the full support of Brit and Lloyd’s behind the initiative.

We have built Ki with the latest technology and a vision of providing a seamless follow capacity to our broker partners. The benefits of this transformative business model are dramatic and will enable follow business to be placed with ease. This is a true step-change for Lloyd’s.”

The creation of Ki was first announced in May 2020. Ki will aim to significantly reduce the amount of time taken for brokers to place their follow capacity. Ki’s algorithm, developed with support from University College London, will evaluate Lloyd’s policies and automatically quote for business through an always available digital platform accessed directly by brokers.