Interview with Christos Gavriel, Managing Broker at Renaissance Insurance Brokers Ltd.
Spreading the Brokerslink ethos. Managing broker of Renaissance Insurance Brokers Ltd. Christos Gavriel talks about his company’s growth and his new role as Brokerslink’s new regional manager for Europe.
You’ve recently been made the regional manager, Europe, for Brokerslink, what’s the one thing you’d like to achieve in this role?
It is my aim to align as many Partners/Affiliates as possible to the Brokerslink ethos. In a smaller business such as ours, everyone knows the Brokerslink story and how the organisation can help us to achieve our business objectives, but I know that in larger firms this isn’t always the case. As regional manager for Europe I will be an ambassador for Brokerslink helping other brokers to develop their appetite and use the network to support their growth and development.
This appointment is a genuine opportunity to give something back. Being a Brokerslink affiliate enabled me to develop a small Cypriot insurance broker into a Lloyd’s broker with a licence to transact across the European Union. I’m pleased to be given the opportunity to support the future development of the organisation in Europe.
What examples are you seeing of how Brokerslink gives back to its Partners and Affiliates?
In my experience, the impact of being a Brokerslink Affiliate goes beyond the financial. We haven’t significantly added more business as a direct result of being an Affiliate, but it has massively elevated Renaissance in the eyes of the market. It gives us a mark of quality that enables us to work more closely with international insurers and opens doors to new opportunities. When we go to Brokerslink events we have the chance to meet with new people who we might otherwise not have met and these relationships are helping us to build and grow our business. For example we met Lloyd’s and became a Lloyd’s broker through our affiliation with Brokerslink.
What trends or emerging risks are you currently seeing in Europe?
Europe is both a blessing and a curse. We operate within a single market which is great for trading across borders, but at the same time there are considerable cultural and language barriers.
I believe that language is the single most significant barrier to pan-European insurance arrangements. In Cyprus it is easy to transact business in English, but as an industry we must find a way to bridge that language gap; perhaps through technology. If we do, brokers will be able to flourish across borders.
On emerging risks, even though most people consider cyber risk the hottest topic, I am particularly concerned with the rise of nationalism/ populism across Europe. What worries most is that I cannot see anything breaking this trend in the near future.
What’s your Brokerslink story?
Three years ago, at a Brokerslink regional meeting in Porto, I won a raffle. The prize was a ticket to the RIMS event in San Diego. This was a life-changing experience for me and a key driver for us developing the business internationally. I met people there who I never would have met if it wasn’t for that ticket, I built business connections and developed trading relationships that helped me to take Renaissance to the next level.
