Influential Women in Captive Insurance: Caroline Wagstaff
Caroline Wagstaff, Chief executive, London Market Group
Caroline Wagstaff has spent the last 35 years immersing herself in the financial and professional services, including commodity trading, spread-betting, accountancy, money broking, legal services and particularly commercial insurance.
After 25 years of working in the London Market, she has seen a wide range of issues come and go—and some come back again. In 1997 when she joined Lloyd’s of London as director of marketing and communications, it was a very different place but the common threads of collaboration and competition are as strong today as they were then.
Wagstaff was appointed chief executive of the London Market Group in April 2021 and her priorities are the challenges of making the market fit for the future with the best business environment and by attracting and retaining young talent to specialty insurance.
How did you get started in the captive insurance industry?
I have been working in the London insurance market since 1997. I was involved in introducing the first captive syndicate to Lloyd’s in the late 1990s. When I became CEO of the London Market Group in 2021 the subject of a UK captive insurance regime was high on the agenda of things we wanted to discuss. Since then I have been working closely with a wide range of stakeholders involved with captives.
Who inspired you or acted as a mentor in your career?
Nick Prettejohn, who was CEO of Lloyd’s when I worked there, was a great mentor. He was relentless in making you want to see how you could do better, and his encouragement and counsel in how to build consensus remains with me today.
What do you think deters people from entering the world of captives?
Similar to lots of parts of the risk transfer industry, it is a pretty well-kept secret. We need to shine a light on the fact that these are interesting aspects of the business and talk more about why they are great places to build a career.
“Women need to be more visible and be vocal about how to overcome challenges.”
How can mentorship and sponsorship programmes be designed to better support the career development of women?
A wise woman once said: “You can’t be what you don’t see”, so we need more role models. Women need to be more visible and be vocal about how to overcome challenges.
What solutions would you like to see?
While female role models are vital, male mentors are also crucial. Women need positive advocacy from men to effect change because currently they are generally in the positions of leadership and can make change happen.
Every time there is a group with not enough diversity, leaders need to ask “what are we not doing?” and “what can we do differently?” to get better balance.
What are your ambitions?
I want to make specialty insurance and other sectors in our market a destination career for young people so we can drive proper diversity and to make the UK a competitive and attractive regime for captive owners.
Click here to read Captive International’s first Influential Women in Captive Insurance publication, celebrating the women transforming the captive sector through their sustained excellence and leadership.
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