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Never one to shy away from an insurance challenge, Atrium recently had two 8^th cohort candidates take part in the Lloyd’s FutureMinds programme.

Catastrophe and exposure risk analyst, Alex Curtis and Assistant Underwriter, Stefan Thornhill were both put forward by the business to attend. They both had a 'What have we got to lose?' approach from the outset and really enjoyed the experience.

One of our assistant underwriters, Jedd Fernley was in the winning team last year. So, Alex and Stefan already had the lowdown from Jedd on the type of highflyers they’d connect with once they’d joined their respective teams.

Alex said: "One of the best things for me was being put in teams with different people from across the market – actually getting to meet people at similar stages in their careers."

"That was also the best bit for me," said Stefan. "To meet other people who you wouldn’t normally meet."

An 8-week programme aimed at driving creativity FutureMinds participants are placed in teams and asked to develop a big product idea centred around Energy Transition.

"My team’s product idea was related to Environmental, Social and Governance law – acting as a central source for underwriters who can’t afford their own expert ESG regulations department," said Stefan.

Alex’s team's pitch was focused on carbon offset insurance. He adds: "If you’re a company and you’ve invested in offset assets that fail, the idea was that we would step in and honour those offset commitments. That way it wouldn’t be a case of unintentional greenwashing and your company’s reputation would be protected."

Atrium Property Underwriter Emma Smith and Upstream Energy Underwriter Joanna Bond also acted as mentors for their Atrium colleagues throughout the process. "We were very happy to help with feedback and guidance," said Emma. "We were also asked to take on the role of experts to the cohort and experts from outside of our industry were on hand to guide participants and I believe this really added value too," she continued.

Tuesday 7 June 2022 proved to be crunch time for Alex and Stefan. "We had 7 minutes to pitch virtually over Zoom, followed by 7 minutes of questions."

Atrium’s support and participation in the Lloyd’s FutureMinds programme resonates strongly with our firm’s commitment to forward thinking through Atrium Innovate. We are also a regular contributor to breakthrough insurance products develop in the Lloyd’s Lab.

• Please contact Simon Lewis or Matthew Greaves if you’d like to find out more about Atrium Innovate.