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Q&A: William Goldstein, Integro Ltd.

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Q&A: William Goldstein, Integro Ltd.

New York-based broker Integro Ltd. recently marked its 10th anniversary. Last month, it was acquired by Odyssey Investment Partners L.L.C. Presiding over these events was William Goldstein, president of Integro since 2014. In an interview with Business Insurance Senior Editor Mark A. Hofmann, Mr. Goldstein discussed what the Odyssey transaction means, Integro's acquisition philosophy and where the company sees growth opportunities. Edited excerpts follow.

Q: Integro was recently acquired by Odyssey Investment. What does this mean for Integro and its clients?

A: We reached our 10-year anniversary. It was a time in which we were looking to find the means to provide liquidity to our shareholders. We found a partner that saw the value in a business like Integro that is very focused on large, complex, as well as various specialty lines of businesses and risks. From an Integro colleague perspective, it's a partner that believes in the strategy and vision that management has articulated, building out a specialty business and platform of scale. For our clients it is to continue to focus on them while providing top notch expertise and talent in the specialty areas and arenas.

Q: Integro has made several acquisitions this year. Do you see more acquisition activity in the near future, and what makes an attractive target for Integro? Or are you trying to expand expertise in particular areas? Is there a particular focus or is this just a means to provide broader products and services for your customers?

A: We have been acquisitive. We'll continue to be acquisitive, but we're really focusing on those partners that bring either a product expertise or an industry specialization that deepens our platform or provides us with a new capability. We're acquisitive, but we're not acquiring just for size. We're acquiring to add specialties and capabilities that we don't have and for us, the first and foremost is the cultural fit of those folks that join Integro, because culture is key. We're very collaborative with our colleagues and our clients, and we want to have new partners in the business fit with us culturally, but also we want to find folks that are specialists and help us build out businesses and specialties within Integro.

Q: Have you gotten into the benefits area?

A: Yes. We have expanded our benefits practice with several recent acquisitions, which essentially doubled (the practice) in size in the past two years. We look to build out our capabilities in that area.

Q: What are your target markets, and has this changed since Integro was launched 10 years ago?

A: We continue to evolve. We have been and continue to be focused on complex risks, whether big or small, and we're really trying to build out the specialty platform and nature of our business. We've diversified our business to add real growing platforms and capabilities in areas such as health care and entertainment and financial institutions. And while some of our clients are really big and some are quite small, they all tend to have a unique industry focus and specialty that differentiates them.

Q: What are Integro's goals?

A: First and foremost, to continue to grow organically and to continue to achieve high 90s client retention rates. Size is obviously something that people measure in tables, but we're most focused on continuing to drive strong client service. Repeat client business is critical. Low employee turnover rate is critical. We think through all those measures and metrics, in the next three to five years, we have a real good chance to double the size of the firm and increase our margin along the way.

Q: Where do you see Integro five or 10 years from now?

A: We would expect to be in a handful of different industry groups than we're currently in and to deepen capabilities across our existing geographic platform and look to potentially add other geographies that we can explore over time.

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