Since moving into the independent non-executive director (INED) space full time in 2015, Institute of Directors (IoD) Ireland member Ian Britchfield has built up an impressive portfolio of financial services director roles, serving on over 20 boards since becoming an INED and 35 boards during his career overall.
His INED experience includes major insurance and reinsurance entities, both non-life and life, two insurance intermediaries, a Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) regulated investment firm, a pensions master trust, and a state board. He currently chairs the boards of Arch Insurance (EU), Carole Nash Insurance Consultants (Ireland), Nib Travel and Navigate Master Trustee (Unio Master Trust).
He believes his previous experience as an executive director prepared him for the switch to non-executive roles. “The broad experience I gained in my executive career, with over 14 years as an executive director was very valuable,” he says.
An accountant turned insurance specialist
His training as a chartered accountant also helped. “One of the main strengths which I bring to my INED roles, and which others have recognised throughout my career, is a very good eye for detail,” he says.
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His accounting career started with Coopers & Lybrand (C&L) - now PwC - in 1992, moving up the ranks quite quickly to audit manager.
He then moved to the sunnier climes of Bermuda. “My wife is also an accountant, and she had an opportunity to transfer to her company’s Bermuda office in 1997,” he recalls. He successfully applied for a transfer to the C&L Bermuda office as audit manager specialising in insurance clients.
Returning home and taking the director’s seat
On his return to Ireland in 1999 he joined GE Re Management services, an insurance management company and part of the GE group. “I joined initially as financial controller and within about six months I was promoted to finance director. That was my first board experience at the age of only 31.”
That business was subsequently taken over by Aon, and he remained with that company until 2004 when he moved to Renaissance Reinsurance of Europe as financial controller, and within a few months was appointed to the board as finance director. Within a year he became managing director of the Irish operation. “I managed that office until 2014 and we’d grown the business from 10 to about 60 people during my time there. I was responsible for, and a director of, both the regulated reinsurance entity and a services company which provided many services to the group.”
A new chapter as an independent director
That brought the curtain down on his career as an executive director. “I was only 45 at that stage, but I anticipated good opportunities for INED roles in insurance and reinsurance, particularly as Solvency II was being introduced,” he explains. “I took a bit of a chance and said, I’ll give this a go, see if it works out and if it doesn’t, I’m still young enough to go back to the full-time job. It took a few months, but I had a good network of contacts built up, and Arch, a large Bermuda based reinsurance company gave me my first INED role in February 2015.
“That was the start of it. Then within six months I had another couple. Over the last 10 years I’ve generally added an additional directorship most years.”
He was subsequently asked to chair Arch Reinsurance and would also go on to chair Arch Insurance (EU). “That was great for my confidence. It was nice to take on additional responsibility.
“There have been quite a few situations where I started out as an INED and then moved on to chair the board. I’ve managed to build up a nice mix of clients, with very different businesses, which allows me to gain different perspectives.”
Adapting to the INED mindset
While his earlier experience as an executive director and of running businesses was valuable, there is still a transition to navigate. “As an INED you are not there to run the business, you’re there to provide guidance and support and challenge to the management team and hopefully add value in terms of assisting with strategy development.”
He says the workload has increased and is constantly increasing for independent directors of regulated entities. He also reflects on the importance of INED focus. “The audit and risk committees really have to do a lot of the heavy lifting and the analysis because you haven’t got time in a board meeting to go through the same level of detail. It can be difficult to get the balance right between compliance and regulatory work and the strategy work of the board. You need to make sure you’re not spending all your time on compliance and looking backwards. You need to be looking forward as well.”
The role of an effective chair
Reflecting on chairing regulated industry boards, he says, “It’s important to be calm because if something’s happened or a mistake has been made, you need to figure out what happened, and then how to respond and move forward. Hopefully, you have a board with a good diversity of experience and part of the role of the chair is to make sure that everyone’s voice is heard. Keeping to the agenda as a chair is also key to ensure things do not go off on a tangent.”
Relationship building is also key. “You need to really get the balance right between challenging management and providing support and guidance. The relationship between the CEO and the chair of the board is always important because if they don’t get on it’s going to be difficult.”
Emerging risks and opportunities
Looking at emerging risks for the insurance industry, he points to cyber, AI and climate as among the most significant. “We should look at all of these things as opportunities as well as risks,” he says. “AI should be presenting opportunities for companies in terms of helping them operate in a more efficient manner but it also creates risks around how it is adopted by companies.”
Independent directors have a role to play. “You’re not going to be an expert on each emerging area, but you need to keep up to date with what’s happening and then be able to challenge management and ask what we are doing about emerging issues.”
Horizon scanning is crucial. “All of the boards I’m involved with are scanning the horizon to identify the risks coming down the track. It’s about measuring, managing, and controlling those risks. Insurance is a risk-taking business so it’s about managing and measuring risk appropriately, not avoiding it.”
Preparing for board roles
His advice to others considering taking on an INED role is to prepare themselves. “I’ve been a member of IoD Ireland for around 20 years, and I would advise prospective INEDs to join as well. They provide training and resources to help make you as relevant to boards as possible and have excellent materials on their website. You do need to think about your unique selling point. You need something that is going to differentiate you. Ideally, from my point of view it is somebody with a relatively broad background or else deep expertise in an important area such as AI or investments. You should educate yourself as much as you can and then try to figure out what skills you have that really let you stand out from the crowd.”
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