Around 90 people, mainly life industry executives, attended the event, an AILO spokeswoman said.
In a pre-dinner speech, Paul Bradshaw, chairman of the Nucleus Financial Group and a founding director of Royal Skandia, said the life offices were crown jewels because of their profitability relative to the larger domestic operations of their parent organisations, and also praised them for the many innovations they brought to the insurance industry, such as open architecture.
Otto Thoresen, director general of the Association of British Insurers and former Aegon chief executive, outlined how he saw the industry’s role in terms of global economic trends, saying he had fresh insight as a result of having attended all the major UK party conferences in recent weeks. He urged those in the industry to keep up to date with such trends, in order to better understand and run their businesses.
AILO’s annual James Ball Memorial Award was presented during the evening to Philip Woolfson, a Brussels-based lawyer and partner in Steptoe & Johnson, who monitors European Union developments on behalf of AILO and helps it to determine and express its policy on matters affecting its members. Alan Morgan-Moodie, chief executive of AILO, presented the award, which was created in memory of one of AILO’s and the international life industry’s founders, James Ball, who died in 2005.
Rod Boulogne, managing director of Last Word Media, the publisher of this website, said he spoke for everyone at his company in congratulating AILO on its 25 years in existence, and in wishing it and its members continued success.
