Into the limelight: Consilium’s ambitious plans

“The best kept secret in Lime Street,” is how the co-chief executive officers of Consilium, James Baird (pictured left) and Paul Richards (pictured right), like to describe the London EC3-based international broking business.

But with 30 percent growth in revenue expected by June 2023, a high profile hiring spree in plain sight and expansion into ever more lines of business, it seems that the cat is well and truly out of the bag. Of course, how stealthy a business that is the international broking re/insurance arm of the Aventum Group, which trades more than $1.5 billion gross written premiums a year with 14 offices globally, can really be is up for debate.

The broker's parent group, which has been “fiercely private” according to Richards, has picked an interesting time to push Consilium into the limelight as the industry faces yet more challenges.

But ongoing market uncertainty has not deterred Baird from designating 2023 a “transformational year” for the broker. “After the January renewals, I think people are just about out of their ice baths. The bruising is subsiding,” Baird said, commenting on the wider market after 1/1.

For Consilium more specifically, any hit from 1/1 on the areas it specialises in—financial lines—may take longer to materialise than the immediate impact seen in the property market, for example.

Baird said: “The D&O market in London fell off a cliff towards the Q3 and Q4 last year. We’re seeing there’s still big competition on the excess layers and financial lines. So the 1/1 treaty renewals haven’t had an impact on the financial lines sector.”

Markets operate on confidence, he said, offering cyber as an example of a line where increased confidence is reflected in increased appetites. It’s also a line of business where the broker has aspirations for growth.

As a business with a financial year that runs from July 2022 to June 2023, he said: “We need to wait and see what happens at 1/4 and 1/7, they are big treaty renewal dates as well. Until those 1/7 treaties are down, we won’t really know where the market is until early to mid Q3.”

Talent drives performance

Such a seemingly cautious and measured approach belies the ambitious plans the broker has already set in train. The firm’s talent hiring bonanza is just one sign of things to come and an indication of the rapid growth that Baird and Richards are themselves a key part of.

Baird joined the international re/insurance broker in November 2022, and Richards in January 2023.

When Baird took up his post less than four months ago, the broker had three teams: an international property team focused on Latin America and the Caribbean; a delegated risk solutions team in Central America providing support to managing general agents (MGAs), including its own MGA Rokstone; and a UK wholesale team called Consilium Risk Solutions.

Since October 2022, the company has set about creating an aviation team, built up its professional and executive risk (pro-ex) team and enhanced the business with a cedant-driven facultative (fac) reinsurance operation.

From June 2022 to early January 2023, the broker grew its headcount from 46 full-time people to 75. Staff numbers are expected to reach 80 by the end of Q1 2023.

“The financial performance has supported the increase in headcount,” said Baird. “We want to grow the business, so we have invested in new areas, such as financial lines, created an aviation team and have a cedant fac division, and the performance of the underlying businesses is very good.” Richards added that achieving 30 percent growth by June 2023 would be “pretty outstanding” and commented: “Do we want to grow at a similar rate in years to come? Yes, of course.”

Bearman’s ambition

The broker’s latest iteration formed in 2021 when UK and international operations merged to form global specialty business Consilium, while ConsiliumRe took its first steps into southeast Asia, operating out of Hong Kong. But its foundations stretch back to 2013 with a Lloyd’s-approved specialist UK and European wholesale broker located in Lime Street, called Direct Insurance London Market.

In the years following this, the business’s founder David Bearman, now CEO of the Aventum Group, continued to expand the business.

Baird said that Bearman decided 12 to 18 months ago that “it was the right time to focus on growing Concilium as a specialty line wholesale broker in London”.

Bearman “clearly has ambition for Consilium”, Richards added. “The Aventum Group has been quietly building and then broke cover to reveal a very strong business, particularly on Rokstone, that’s profitable, fiercely private, fiercely independent, and not beholden to external shareholders, and now Bearman wants to turn that focus on Consilium. “The strategy was to find great people who can help build and grow the broking side of the business,” he explained.

Richards said Bearman had looked at the market and found himself and Baird. The two co-CEOs had already worked together for 22 years in different organisations of varying shapes and sizes and made a success of that. “I think that was a natural relationship to bring into Consilium,” he said.

Richards added that from the broker’s strong foundation and good performance, it’s clear that it’s “not a startup”. He said: “In terms of the next phase, we have a lot of ground to cover, and having two heads and two sets of hands is going to enable us to cover that ground quickly.

“In a fast-growing business, particularly one like ours, we have to deliver on tech, on growing our business, bringing in talent, and getting some of the operational foundations built. A proven partnership at the helm steering and driving the ship is a perfect recipe,” he concluded.

Read more on Consilium:

Consilium eyes ‘transformational year’ of growth in 2023 with two CEOs

Consilium launches cedant fac reinsurance with Willis/JLT/Lockton veteran

New international casualty hire a ‘real coup’ for Consilium in UK

Ed Broking sees exodus of financial lines specialists leaving for Consilium

Consilium eyes further expansion with senior Ed Broking/TUE hires