Flandro hails exciting new era in role as chief of Hyperion X

David Flandro, the well-known broker who has previously headed analytics teams at JLT Re and Guy Carpenter, told Monte Carlo Today that his new role with Hyperion X, the data and technology arm of Hyperion Insurance Group, represents his most exciting challenge yet and an opportunity to take the use of data in the insurance and reinsurance industry to another level.

It was revealed this week that Flandro, who left JLT Re after it was acquired by his former company Guy Carpenter in April, has joined Hyperion X as managing director of analytics. In this role, he will spearhead the development of Hyperion’s new analytics business, Hyperion X Analytics, a joint venture between Hyperion X and RKH Reinsurance Brokers.

“I am genuinely excited about this opportunity, which represents the chance to build a business with the potential to change the market and make a difference,” he told Monte Carlo Today.

“The fantastic thing is that the analytics team here has been born within a technology and data science function, with experts in those fields. We have an incredible pool of data to draw from and I am looking forward to rolling out some of the services it will allow us to offer.”

The new business will service RKH’s treaty, facultative, and specialty clients in addition to the wholesale and managing general agent clients of Howden and DUAL.

It will encompass Hyperion’s actuarial, catastrophe modelling, and thought leadership functions, and create a strategic advisory offering, underpinned by Hyperion X’s product set, and by its Accelerator data platform.

Flandro said the data will be curated and analysed using innovative tools that leverage artificial intelligence to provide a number of services for clients. It will offer advisory services whereby it can help clients understand pricing trends in certain markets, and it is looking to create what he calls a “graphical interface” where clients will be able to access detail on trends for different markets. He is also considering how the data might be used to create data series that insurance-linked securities products could be linked to.

“We are considering many new products—there are many exciting opportunities thanks to the quality of the data we will have. Across the group’s businesses, you are talking about billions of dollars of premium. This is a fantastic starting point to develop very valuable analytical products for clients,” he said.

At JLT Re, Flandro was global head of analytics and founded and developed its strategic advisory team. Prior to this, he co-founded and then led Guy Carpenter’s Global Business Intelligence team. He also worked at Benfield as a member of the Industry Analysis and Research team and at Merrill Lynch where he was an equity analyst.