Rugby, insurance and diving - all in one career

“None of this has been done with a plan” - so says Chief Executive Mike Srokowski, the head of a firm set to turnover £8m after just three years trading.

The EDP's acting Business Editor Elaine Maslin met him at his Princes Street headquarters:-

Ask Mike Srokowski what he would rather be - the Chief Executive and founder of a fast growing and profitable business or a professional rugby player - and he will not hesitate to answer.

Instead, a string of events, from scuba diving off the coast of Ireland to hiring a prop forward, has led him to found and lead a company which is breaking ground in the insurance industry.

At the end of its first 18 months of trading in June 2009, Validus had grown from being a small start up in Thorpe Road to having 50 staff and needing to relocate. Mike Srokowski

It now has more than 100 staff, turned over £4m in its last financial year and predicts at least £8m for next year.

“When I put the business plan together I thought we would go to about 30 people and turnover £1.5m,” said Mr Srokowski.

“It is not bad from a standing start and there is plenty more to go at. The forecast for next year is looking very good.

“We would be surprised if we don't get to £8m next year.”

The firm's niche - and profitability - is based on computer software developed over two years, initially as drawings on brown paper pasted around the walls of Mr Srokowski's Norwich home.

It was designed to help process and manage credit hire arrangements for the insurance industry, processing claims for costs from companies that provide temporary cars for drivers after road accidents.

Some 47 analysts beaver away at the firm's Princes Street headquarters going through thousands of claims saving the insurance industry cash and getting credit hire firms their payments faster.

And now that software, which is being constantly developed, is set to spur growth further at Validus as it looks to other applications in the market.

It is a long way from Mr Srokowski's first job working for British Gas.

Offered training as a commercial diver with the utility giant, he jumped at the chance, having enjoyed scuba diving off the coast of Ireland, the family's summer holiday ground.

At the end of training there was no job, however.

He got work helping build the Thames Barrier and then found a job out of Great Yarmouth.

The job meant he had to take a step back from his rugby career - he was playing regionally, including for London Irish as a centre and Norwich, but he couldn't risk injury on the playing field as it could lose him work when he had a family to support.

But then a nasty accident on a ship, “I was nearly decapitated”, led to a change of direction.

Constrained to the office, Mr Srokowski had his first taste of insurance writing insurance reports.

This led to positions as project manager and then operations director before being asked to relocate to Aberdeen.

Norfolk had become his home and after working with another insurance company, in credit hire, and then a larger insurance firm in Norwich he was encouraged to set up a credit hire firm on his own.

“It was successful for five years,” he said. “The only thing was a lot of outstanding debt owed to the company. Some were disputed, others caught up in the system. I looked at it and thought 'do I need this, why is it happening?'

"Insurers were getting claims they shouldn't get and hire credit firms were not getting payments when they should and it was across the board", he said.

“The industry was going one way,” he said. “It was unsustainable. I sat down and said we're good at making claims which meant we could be better and defending them. We could be poacher turned game keeper.

“We produced this brown paper map around my living room which went through every single argument for and against a claim.

“Ed (Edwyn van Rooyen, a rugby player and law graduate who had joined Mr Srokowski at his previous firm) and Chris Sawford (who had been at the rugby club as well) were absolutely passionate about it.”

The early days were not easy. The software took two years to develop, but it has created a sea of change in the industry, he says.

Mr Srokowski, never far from his rugby roots, says it was a team effort.

“My skills are finding the right people,” he said. “I have found some fantastic talent right across the board. They have become shareholders as a result.”

He has high praise for his chief technology officer James Duez. They have just hired John Kennedy, who had been director of business development at Aviva.

His legal services director, Edwyn van Rooyen, was discovered when a visiting rugby club chairman mentioned he had come across an employee at the hotel he was staying at who could fill a prop forward position at Norwich City Rugby Club, at which Mr Srokowski has been Chairman.

A graduate in law, he got on the team and got a job and is now a director and share holder.

“It is about encouraging people to have ideas,” said Mr Srokowski. “Validus is also a young organisation and I think you need that and I can help mentor some of the younger guys.”

So, given the choice would he be where he is or be a professional rugby player? Rugby, without doubt.

But it doesn't make life at Validus any less interesting.

“It is incredibly exciting times for us,” he said. “We have four out of the top five motor insurers, we have analysed 80,000 claims, £200m worth, savings insurers £37m.

The firm is also looking at how they can service other areas of insurance. “It has moved on from the original concept,” he said.

“There are lots of other initiatives we hope to have in place by December 2010. We will be able to offer a full claims management service.”