My contribution to a board
I would bring an understanding of physical risk from the people who price it, transfer it and hold capital against it. Many companies outside insurance carry large exposures to flood, storm and heat in their buildings, networks and supply chains, but see those risks mainly through their insurance renewal and an annual risk register. I can help a board ask how much of that risk the company keeps, how much it transfers, what it pays for the transfer and what would happen if insurance became unavailable or much more expensive in particular locations.
I would also bring experience of reporting difficult results to investors and supervisors. I have argued for the less flattering presentation of our own figures, and I know what it costs in the short term. On an audit committee, I would ask how headline measures are defined, whether definitions have changed and what the figures would look like on a different basis. I am not an accountant and would not serve as a committee's designated accounting expert.
I could chair a risk committee in a company outside financial services after a proper induction. I would expect to rely on others for sector knowledge that I lack, and I would say where my insurance experience does not transfer.
My first year on a board
In the first three months, I would read the board papers and minutes of the previous two years, meet the chair, the committee chairs, the chief executive and chief financial officer, and ask to see the company's main physical sites and its risk register. I would want to understand which decisions have returned to the board more than once and why. I would agree with the chair which topics they expect me to contribute to, and how they want questions raised between meetings.
In the following six months, I would concentrate on a small number of questions related to the reason for my appointment. For a real-estate or infrastructure company, those might include how physical-climate risk is reflected in asset valuations, maintenance budgets and insurance strategy, and what the company would do if cover became unavailable in particular locations. I would raise observations through the committee or the chair, not through informal contact with management.
At the end of the first year, I would ask the chair for a candid assessment of my contribution, including where my insurance background had helped and where it had narrowed my view. I would review my own attendance and preparation and adjust the time I allocate if the role had demanded more than I expected.
Conflicts and their management
My first obligation is to Talvermark, and any external appointment would need the consent of our supervisory board. Before accepting, I would review whether the company buys insurance from Talvermark, places business through brokers with whom we have binding authority arrangements, or is a client of our main reinsurers. I would also consider whether the company's sector is one in which Talvermark is likely to compete or invest.
Where a conflict could be managed, I would disclose it at the outset and leave the room for related discussions. I would not take part in decisions about the company's insurance purchasing. Where a conflict was so central that I would regularly be excluded from important discussions, I would decline the appointment. I would never use information from one board in the work of the other.
The German Corporate Governance Code recommends that a management board member of a listed company keep supervisory mandates in non-group listed companies to a small number and not chair the supervisory board of one. I would follow that recommendation. Twenty-four days a year, including preparation and committee work, is what I can honestly offer; if the role required more, I would say so before accepting.
My independence statement
I would disclose every relationship between the company and Talvermark, including whether it buys insurance from us, places business through brokers we work with or is reinsured by our counterparties. I would also disclose my shareholdings and personal connections. Whether I could be treated as independent is for the company and its advisers to assess under the rules that apply to it; I would not offer that conclusion myself.
Judgement in practice
01Putting the opposing case in the board's own papers
When I recommended selling our personal motor book in 2022, two employee representatives on the supervisory board opposed it. I could have presented the recommendation and left them to argue against it in the meeting. Instead, I included their objections in the board paper in their own words, alongside the cross-selling analysis and the effect on colleagues. The board approved the sale, but the discussion was about the real trade-offs rather than about whether management had been fair to the opposing view. The employee representatives voted against, and their position was minuted. I learnt that a board can disagree well only if the disagreement is set out in the same document as the recommendation. As a non-executive, I would ask management to do the same for contested decisions, and I would look closely at papers that present no serious alternative.
02Asking the audit committee to choose the harder headline
In 2022 I took the question of how to present our combined ratio under IFRS 17 to the supervisory board's audit committee. Management was divided, and I did not hide that: the chief financial officer's preference for the discounted figure was set out with its reasons, alongside mine. The committee asked for the bridge between the two figures to be audited as part of our results disclosures and for the definition to be fixed for at least three years. That condition improved the decision, because it removed any temptation to change the headline later. My lesson for board work is that the committee's role was not to choose between two executives but to set the conditions under which either choice would be credible. I would bring that approach to any audit committee discussion about how a company defines its key measures.
03Escalating a concentration the business preferred not to see
At Veldhoorn in 2014, our analysis showed that glasshouse growers in a few regions represented a concentration of hail exposure larger than our reinsurance assumed. The segment was profitable and the brokers were valued, so there was little appetite to raise it. I presented the accumulation to the parent group's risk committee with a proposal to reprice and to buy additional protection, at a cost to that year's result. The committee approved it after challenging the modelling. When the June 2016 hailstorm struck, losses were heavy but within plan. As a director, I would look for concentrations that are profitable and therefore unexamined.
Committee contribution
Chair and member readiness| Capacity | Committees |
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| Ready to chair | Risk committee of a non-insurance company, after an organisation-specific induction |
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| Ready to join | Audit committee, without acting as its designated accounting expert · Sustainability or climate committee · Nomination committee |
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Board and committee exposure
Served as a director
Talvermark SE
Management board (executive), chair since 2021, member since 2017
January 2017–present
Collective responsibility for the group's management under a two-tier structure; this is an executive board, not a supervisory mandate.
Reported to a committee
Talvermark SE
Supervisory board audit committee and risk committee
2017–present
Report on underwriting results, catastrophe accumulation, reinsurance and the presentation of results under IFRS 17.
Served as a director
Talvermark Österreich AG
Supervisory board, chair (intra-group mandate)
June 2021–present
Chair the supervisory board of our Austrian subsidiary; not an independent mandate, as the company is wholly owned by the group.
Presented to the Board or a committee
Veldhoorn Verzekeringen
Parent group risk committee
2014–2016
Presented the commercial turnaround plan and glasshouse hail accumulation to the parent bancassurance group's risk committee.
Capacity and preferences
- Time available
- 24 days per year
- Current directorships
- 1
- Sectors
- Real-estate owners and developers with physical-climate exposure · Regulated utilities and water infrastructure · Industrial businesses with complex property and supply-chain risk
- Company type
- Listed or large family-owned company in mainland Europe, with a two-tier or one-tier board
- Company stage
- An established business facing a material decision about physical risk, capital allocation or how it reports its results
The seat I am pursuing
I am seeking one supervisory board or non-executive seat in a European company outside insurance competition, where physical-climate risk, capital allocation or the presentation of results are live questions for the board. I would be most useful to a real-estate owner, regulated utility, infrastructure operator or industrial business that carries significant physical risk and wants a director who understands how that risk is priced and transferred. I am not looking for a seat on another insurer's board, because the conflicts would be too frequent, and I would not accept a role whose main value is its title. Before proceeding, I would want to understand what the chair sees as missing from the board's current discussions, how committee work is divided and whether the company accepts the limits on my time and the disclosure obligations my executive role creates. I would rather decline a good seat than accept one I cannot serve properly.
Governance learning and readiness
IICA Independent Directors’ Databank: Not yet registered
I am not registered in India's Independent Directors' Databank, which applies to independent directors of Indian companies. I hold no Indian appointment and am not seeking one. My interest is in a European seat, where the relevant corporate governance code and company law would apply.
- Supervisory board training on audit committee practice and the role of the statutory auditor
- Board sessions on the amended Solvency II framework and climate scenario analysis
- Annual review of the German Corporate Governance Code's recommendations with our company secretary