Contributor makes councilman, Southgate selfie frenzy at 2025’s Biba Conference, professionals pass muster at terminology testing and cyclists collect for charity. What has the insurance industry been up to of late? You heard it here first…
Contributor leads council
Insurance Times is thrilled to congratulate regular contributor Jon Guy on his appointment as the mayor of Wivenhoe Town Council last month (May 2025).
The Essex-based journalist has been the council’s deputy mayor for the past year, before being voted into his current position by peer councillors at an annual meeting on 19 May. His tenure as mayor will last for one year and will also see him become chair of Wivenhoe’s council.
He said: “I am delighted and honoured to become mayor of the town which has been voted as the best place to live in the east of England for the past two years.
“It promises to be a very exciting and challenging year as we face the devolution of local government in Essex – the details of which will become known in the coming months. Sadly, I don’t think I will be allowed to wear my chain of office in the London market.”
Southgate snaps
Football fans among the Insurance Times editorial team were excited to meet Sir Gareth Southgate during last month’s Biba Conference (14 and 15 May 2025), with the former England men’s senior team head coach pausing to take selfies with deputy editor Yiannis Kotoulas, news editor James Cowen, senior reporter Harry McNeil and data reporter George McDade.
The sporting giant closed the two-day event’s conference agenda with a session entitled ’Back of the Net: Leadership That Scores Big’. However, he was unable to share any Fantasy Football tips, telling Insurance Times that he had not been keeping up with who was injured or in form.
Terminology testing
Insurance software firm Genasys Technology last month (May 2025) decided to put the industry’s know-how of market jargon and practices to the test, inviting UK general insurance professionals to take part in a 40-question, multiple choice online quiz, which had a strict 10-minute time limit. The participant that gets the most correct answers within the time frame wins a £100 Amazon voucher.
The quiz ran until 31 May. The Insurance Times editorial team decided to have a stab while on the train to Manchester ahead of Biba’s conference – editor Katie Scott and McDade managed to trump Cowen and McNeil with a score of 26.
Although the winner had yet to be revealed at the time of writing, the firm’s marketing vice-president Ed Halsey shared on LinkedIn on 27 May that 10% of the 91 professionals that have completed the quiz earned a score over 35.
Raptör ride
In July 2025, 90 cyclists will take on annual charity bike ride Raptör – now in its sixth year – to raise funds for children’s charity Action Medical Research.
The gruelling challenge takes place over four days, with bike fans pedalling from London to the French town of Roubaix. The route will see cyclists traverse through Flanders and Dunkirk, for example, before a finishing lap at the legendary Roubaix Velodrome.
Created and sponsored by digital Lloyd’s syndicate Ki, 2025’s event has already raised £1.22m.
Other sponsors of the ride this year include Brit, Scor, Lockton, Everest, Verisk, Aspen Insurance, JS Held, Argenta and Chaucer.
Mark Allan, chief executive at Ki, said: ”Ki is proud to be the lead sponsor of the Raptör ride for its sixth year and we are very much looking forward to the challenge – as well as taking in the historical sites of France along the way.”
The Speculator
In 2020, Insurance Times published an article outlining that intermediary Gallagher may choose broker consolidator PIB Group as one of its major UK acquisition targets.
Five years later, it looks like this could be a very real possibility, with rumours circulating at the 2025 Biba Conference in May that Gallagher could be closing in on a deal – Insurance Times understands from market participants that agreeing on the financials is the current blocker on the deal going through.
Nothing official has been said about such a transaction, however, but there is no doubt that a major broking force in the UK would be created if such a merger is approved.
And the integration could be rather seamless. For example, PIB Group has acquired several MGAs in recent years, which could be shoehorned into Gallagher’s MGA Pen Underwriting.
Gallagher’s wide UK appetite also makes it possible to accommodate PIB Group’s range of specialist broking businesses.
So, something to keep an eye on – if this deal goes through, it could be the biggest of the year.
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