NICK ANTONIOU | Age: 33 Executive reinsurance underwriter

ICW Group Insurance Cos

Chicago

A love of math led Nick Antoniou to a degree in actuarial science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a career in reinsurance. He started out as an underwriting assistant, then became a reinsurance underwriter, a role that was a good fit for his more extrovert personality. He joined ICW in 2021 to help grow its start-up reinsurance business.

What’s your advice on navigating the current insurance market?

What’s worked for me throughout my whole career and even more so in this current market is, firstly, accountability. If I say I’m going to do something I like to make sure I get it done. The other side of that coin is knowing when and how to say no, and that is a little more important in this market. If I know I can’t do something — for example, if somebody brings me a line of business that we are at capacity for, or we don’t want to write any more — it’s better for me to be transparent and upfront about it. Open communication and being transparent about what you can and cannot do is hugely important.

How are technological advances changing your job?

Recently we’ve seen the first foray into generalized AI with large language models such as ChatGPT and Bard. In the next five years we could be looking at this like when smartphones came out. Once enterprise-type software that ties into it becomes more vetted and available, I think it’s going to be an interesting, dynamic switch in the industry that’s going to dramatically increase efficiency.

What’s something about you that would surprise people?

I’m from Cyprus in the Mediterranean. I grew up there and came to the U.S. for college.

Favorite hobby or pastime?

I’ve taken up pickleball lately.

What did you want to be when you grew up?

I started off wanting to be a veterinarian.