An Insurance News special podcast features interviews with the experts behind the inaugural Underwriting Agencies Council Leadership Academy.

The landmark leadership program is tailored to mid-career professionals in the agency sector, which is responsible for more than $10 billion of premium a year.

“We’re really good at technical training, but we don’t do a lot from a commercial acumen perspective. There was a gap there,” UAC CEO Jenny Bax told podcast host and Insurance News MD Andrew Silcox.

“We’ve already had three candidates promoted since the course commenced. I want them to be the shape-makers for us – the champions for UAC and the broader underwriting agency sector moving forward.”

The academy will run annually. This year’s first six-module course began in March, with an intake of 27, and will run to September. It covers leadership, business planning, underwriting and portfolio management, claims, capacity and distribution models, compliance and data/AI.

Peter Gezimati, head of delegated authority at sponsor HDI Global, says success depends on underwriters connecting risk expertise with business outcomes.

“What makes leadership training so powerful is its multiplier effect,” he said. “Graduates don’t just grow individually – they also go on to mentor others in their teams when they go back to the office, transferring knowledge, shaping culture and building capability over the next five to 10 years.

“This creates a very strong, sustainable succession pipeline.”

Academy cohort member and CFC underwriter Selina Fowler says insurance can sound boring to graduates – “an office desk job where you’re doing car and house insurance” – but her career is exciting and varied.

“It’s just getting that word out there and informing the younger generations of ... so many opportunities within one industry.”

The academy brings together professionals from rival agencies, but UAC chair Mike Edmonds says it has proven “quite collegiate while being competitive”.

Cohort member Amelia Stone, a UAA manager, expects the relationships formed will be lifelong and says the course material resonates. “I’m thirsty to take on all of that new information ... We have to keep relevant and keep ahead of the trend.”