The Chairman's Blog

Chairman and CEO of DUAL International, Bob Van Gieson, comments on DUAL group news, the worldwide insurance industry and general updates in his new blog.

18/08/10

Dear clients, prospective clients and insurance colleagues around the world,

I am pleased to write my new blog following a somewhat hectic, yet exciting few months at DUAL International.

Since we launched our new website at the start of June our greatest venture has been our new partnership with Hiscox Insurance.  This new relationship is one that I have been nurturing for a good few months and from 1st October Hiscox will be providing capacity for the DUAL Group’s operations in the UK, Ireland, Italy and Australia.  Our hope is that in time other DUAL offices will join in this partnership and we will provide information on this as soon as we can.

Around the rest of the DUAL group news continues to be positive; our group, teams and product offerings continue to grow in a way that makes me immensely proud of our business.  DUAL is built on providing an exceptional service and, with that as our core value, in a way that ensures our clients always benefit.  On this I give great credit to the exceptional people that work for DUAL in all our territories to ensure this will continue to the case in the future.

In London the team at DUAL Corporate Risks introduced a new Property and Casualty division which opened for business on 16 August, headed up by Steve Price, which we are all very excited about, and which we hope will give way to new opportunities and protection for our clients.  

DUAL Germany have recently secured new capacity with Newline enabling them to write up to 20m Euros limit for D&O and to continue to provide their clients with the highest level of service and protection that they’ve come to expect.  This comes following a great increase in need for D&O in the German market.

Down under, DUAL Australia continue to go from strength to strength having recently appointed Peter Bailey as Chief Operating Officer.  This will assist in driving the continued development of DUAL in the Asia Pacific region.

Elsewhere DUAL Iberica recently attended the Congress for Liability and Insurance, postioning themselves as a force to be reckoned with in the Spanish and Portuguese market and they are no doubt still celebrating their recent World Cup win!!  

In addition there are many celebrations around the world as DUAL Italia gear up for their 10th anniversary party, our National Business Unit in Manchester, UK celebrates its 5th Year anniversary and DUAL Ireland celebrates its 1st year anniversary in the coming weeks!!  

An exciting time for DUAL…with so much more to report on in the coming months…!!

On the home front, after many months of tedious negotiations with Anne, on Friday August 20th there will be a new addition to the Van Gieson household.  Bentley, golden retriever – 8 weeks old, will join Butler, our yellow labrador – 11 years old, as one lucky lab, owned by Anne van Gieson.

After my first year with Dual and the Hyperion Group, I continue to enjoy working with the staff to continue our long history of successful growth.  To that end, Rinku tells me July has been the most successful (revenue growth) month in our history.  In spite of continuing rate pressure, the profitability of our business continues to be excellent.  This is certainly a great accomplishment.

Well done everyone!

Bob

01/06/10

A note to you,

I am really excited to present our new DUAL International website to you.  This website enforces everything we associate with the DUAL group; a Superior Service, Professionalism, Exceptional people and Tailored products. 

In addition to this site we have also launched new DUAL country websites and would be thrilled if you could take the time to see what our offices are up to.  You can navigate your way to these easily through our Offices pages.  As with everything we do this site is designed with you, our clients and associates in mind so we really do value what you think.  If you have any comments or suggestions on how we could improve or just to say that we’ve got it right – please drop me a line here.

Every month I will be writing a Chairman’s blog, so please check back here next month to gain a further insight into the DUAL group and our position in the worldwide insurance market.

Kind Regards

Bob Van Geison