Getting to Know Peter Kamford

American Mining Insurance Company is now a part of the W.R. Berkley company, falling into the Admitted Specialty Lines section. Like AMIC, these companies offer a breadth of products that are distributed through wholesale and retail brokers, and through local agents who have specialized expertise in the classes of business underwritten by each of these operating units. Peter L. Kamford is the Senior Vice President of Admitted Specialty Lines.

How long have you been with W.R. Berkley? Where were you before joining Berkley?
Peter Kamford: I joined W.R.Berkley in January of 2006. Prior to joining, I worked for Guy Carpenter & Company for 26 years as a treaty reinsurance broker. Back in 1986, I worked on my first reinsurance transaction on behalf of Berkley, that being a reinsurance treaty for what is now known as Clermont Specialty Managers, so my association with our firm goes back a bit.

So, you’ve been with W.R. Berkley almost two years. How are things different here than at previous companies you’ve been involved with?
P.K.: Over the years I have had the opportunity to become quite familiar with dozens of insurance operations. We run our business differently than the vast majority of them. Most firms have some form of a Home Office/ Branch Office Structure where decision making primarily takes place in the Home Office and the Branch Offices are then involved in executing or implementing those plans and decisions. The prevailing view is that your best and brightest people will ultimately wind up in the Home Office, where they supposedly will be in the position to make the best decisions that ultimately will impact the customer base across the country.

Our business model turns that view on its ear so to speak. Each of our individual operations, wherever they may be located, formulate and execute their own business plans with a level of guidance and oversight taking place here at WRBC. But our view is that you should know your customer base far better than any one here in Greenwich. Our model provides for more individual empowerment and that of course requires that alot of trust be placed in the hands of more people as opposed to fewer.

more>>>

click here for larger graphs