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UP CLOSE: Mark R. Shumway

Posted On: Jul. 31, 2016 12:00 AM CST

UP CLOSE: Mark R. Shumway

PHILADELPHIA-BASED GLOBAL HEAD OF STRATEGIC ADVISORY

JLT Re (North America) Inc.

PREVIOUS POSITION: Singapore-based head of strategic advisory, Asia-Pacific, Guy Carpenter & Co L.L.C.

LOOKING FORWARD TO: Joining a growing, entrepreneurial firm that understands the need for continuous investment in order to deliver long-term value to clients and shareholders.

CHALLENGES FACING INDUSTRY: Continued low interest rates, competition from low-cost new entrants — including leaders in other industries — and an increasing gap between economic and insured exposures due to institutionalized risk aversion.

CRYSTAL BALL: Without going too far out on a limb ... within 15 years, much of the transactional and administrative role of reinsurance brokers will be replaced by distributed ledgers, leaving brokers primarily with analytical and advisory roles.

FIRST INDUSTRY JOB: My first corporate exposure to the insurance industry was at KPMG (L.L.P.), then known as KPMG Peat Marwick.

WHAT SURPRISED ME: The complexity and diversity of insurance products and the extent to which global economic growth and stability depend on the performance of those products and their carriers.

ADVICE: Try new things, visit new places, insert yourself into situations that are uncomfortable.

OUTSIDE THE INDUSTRY, A DREAM JOB: Community financial planner. I want to help people get their finances in order so they can eliminate one worry and do better things with their time.

THING MOST PEOPLE DON'T KNOW ABOUT ME: I worked my way through college doing a string of jobs, including driving a van and guiding tours in New York City.

DON'T LEAVE THE HOUSE WITHOUT: Clothes. And hopefully a smile.

PET PEEVES: Parochialism.

WHEN I RETIRE: Financial planner, in Hawaii. Or New Zealand.