Andy Homer has been appointed Non-Executive Chairman of Hood Group, the data and technology driven insurance specialist which works with major brands including esure, Sheilas’ Wheels, Asda Money and the RAC.

Homer has a wealth of experience in this sector and has held numerous executive positions within the insurance industry including CEO of Towergate Insurance. He is also an investor in start-up companies such as Bikmo and Bought by Many.

Andy commented: “Simon and his team have built a dynamic business and the way they use data and technology in their everyday operations is unrivalled in any other insurance business I’ve seen. I am joining the Group at an exciting time in its development. Its passion for working with well-known brands and insurers is contagious and they’re leading the way in insurance offerings.”

Hood Group Chief Executive, Simon Hood, added: “I have known Andy for a number of years and during that time he has always been interested in Hood Group. This interest has grown over the past year as we have embarked on our journey to transform insurance through innovation and I am absolutely delighted that he has chosen to join us. His wealth of experience in our industry and passion for driving change through innovation will be a tremendous asset to our business as we work hard to achieve our ambitions.”

Andy will take over the role of Non-Executive Chairman from Eric Cater, who has been with Hood Group since 1988 when he led a management buy-out with Bernard Hood. Simon Hood continued: “Eric has been an important part of the company’s journey and I am extremely grateful to him for his advice and counsel over the years. I am delighted that his association with Hood Group will continue as Non-Executive Director.”

Our goal at Hood Group is to transform insurance through innovation.

A lofty ambition perhaps, but insurance in its current state isn’t truly serving today’s customers and certainly won’t work for the next generation. We believe that we need to shape personalised customer experiences, products and pricing to create a service that they willingly buy into.

To achieve our ambition, we had to start at home – reviewing and enhancing our own infrastructure and capabilities. Of course this hasn’t been a straightforward exercise – but then again, no-one here at Hood Group thought it would be! However looking back over the past 12 months, I think we can be really proud of what we have accomplished on our journey so far.

There is a real desire and focus from all levels of the business to produce tangible outputs from the lab. This is to be expected – the Group has invested money and time into this but it is realistic enough to understand that it is important to put structure and research around our approach. Being sidetracked by ‘big shiny’ ideas and focusing on getting something to market can distract from the real opportunities.

Activity has been wide-reaching with a view to gaining an in-depth understanding of innovation in the wider insurance industry and the InsurTech start-up ecosystem as well as the innovation capability within Hood Group.

To drive this activity, we set up a dedicated innovation lab that sits separate from the day-to-day business operations both in style of working and physical location. As well as commencing internal innovation initiatives such as hackathons and workshops, the lab has undertaken a huge amount of research to fuel our understanding and engaged with innovation experts from numerous companies across many industries along with brands, insurers and partners.

We also secured support from the UK’s innovation agency, Innovate UK, to part-fund a 24-month project with the University of Essex to help develop our data strategy including artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities.

We’ve learned a lot along our journey so far:

1. Innovation and data initiatives are inextricably linked – a combined strategic approach and collaboration is required or you’ll find that you’re using existing assumptions to make decisions.
2. Culture is critical – if the internal culture isn’t right innovation efforts will fail
3. Build an innovation tribe – while innovation needs to sit outside the day-to-day stuff and has to be empowered to act differently, it has to have regular interaction with and support from the business as it can’t survive on its own
4. Some of the biggest opportunities will be internal – you cannot bring the game changing disruptive ideas into a legacy organisation
5. You can’t do everything – to be successful you must prioritise resources and effort

Most importantly we’ve recognised the danger of innovating for the sake of it. We’ve stayed true to our purpose and objectives and kept our customers front and centre with everything we do. 2018 will see us start delivering so watch this space!

Data and technology driven insurance specialist, Hood Group, today announces that it has entered a new strategic partnership with Lloyd’s Syndicate 4444 which is managed by Canopius Managing Agents.

Syndicate 4444 will underwrite Hood Group’s mortgage payment protection insurance solution distributed via mortgage intermediaries through the Group’s Select & Protect brand.

Hood Group Commercial Director, Bruce Reid, comments: “We are committed to ensuring that we provide our broker partners and their customers with the very best products and service available. Canopius is a hugely respected brand, ranked among the top ten in the Lloyd’s insurance market*, and we are proud to count them as a new strategic insurance partner. We have a number of further product and distribution opportunities that we are exploring together, so see this as the start of an exciting partnership.”

David Swan, Deputy Head – Specialist Consumer Products, Canopius, says: “Select & Protect is a well known, trusted brand in the financial intermediary market sector so we are delighted to be able to work with them and their parent, Hood Group, and extend our underwriting footprint into the sector.”

Data and technology driven insurance specialist, Hood Group, today announces that Moyo Akala has joined the team as data scientist.

In this new role at Hood Group, Moyo will play a key part in supporting Hood Group’s vision of transforming insurance through innovation. His primary focus will include working on new ways of personalising quote journeys, adapting content and user experience to the individual customer needs and setting by using demographic and contextual data.

He will also work closely with Hood Group’s brand partners using their proprietary data to help identify the right customer that can add value across the brand’s entire proposition, not just insurance. He will also be working with Hood Group’s insurer partners to better define risks and products.

Moyo has a Masters in Data Science from Coventry University and BSc in Mathematics. His most recent role was at Access Bank in Lagos, Nigeria where he held the role of Customer Data Analyst.

Hood Group Paul Firkins, Business Development Director, comments: “Our industry has a vast amount of untapped data that we can use to better determine risks and improve both our processes and cost efficiencies to improve the customer experience. Artificial intelligence and machine learning will give us the infrastructure to do this by personalising the products, pricing and overall experience. The team here at Hood Group are committed to innovating insurance through data and so we are incredibly excited to have Moyo on board to help us take our data analysis capabilities to a whole new level.”

The creation of this brand new role follows on from the funding secured from the UK’s innovation agency, Innovate UK through a Knowledge Transfer Partnership with the Institute for Analytics and Data Science, based at the University of Essex. The Institute brings together academic experts in analytics and data science from across the University to offer cutting-edge research, specialist courses and vital insights for business.

Neos, the UK’s first smart home insurance provider has partnered with data and technology driven insurance specialist, Hood Group.

Hood Group will provide administration services supporting the Neos smart home insurance proposition. This will include sales support and administrative customer services including customer helpline, policy fulfilment, mid-term adjustments and renewals.

Neos is set to revolutionise the way consumers protect their homes, by combining smart home technology, monitoring and assistance plus comprehensive home insurance cover – all in a single smartphone app. The technology can detect and help prevent fire, intruders, and water leaks, with alerts provided to your smartphone and the ability to to keep an eye on your home 24/7 via live camera feed.

Matt Poll, CEO of Neos, said: “We’re taking a fresh approach to insurance, giving consumers the option to actively protect the home, people and things they care about using the latest smart home technology. Hood Group has demonstrated that it puts the customer first when it comes to the services that are the backbone of any insurance offering. They have a proven track record of consistently high customer service levels. Not only that, they share our belief that insurance should do far more than just pay out for claims when things go wrong.”

Hood Group CEO, Simon Hood, commented: “We are delighted to be appointed by Neos to support their proposition. Hood Group are committed to transforming insurance through innovation and working with innovative organisations like Neos is one of our key strategic aims. With a proven track record in both quality customer service and technology led solutions, Hood Group can provide Neos with the infrastructure to enable their proposition to scale up quickly and sustainably. Matt and his team have demonstrated a solution that uses technology to assist the consumer and we will do all we can to make Neos a huge success.”

Data and technology driven insurance specialist, Hood Group, has appointed Kirsty Villanueva to the newly created role of Data Protection Officer.

With previous roles including Risk Officer at Edinburgh Napier University and Project Officer in the Business Services Transformation Programme at NHS Northern Ireland, Kirsty has a proven track record of taking responsibility for the risk management portfolio of large and complex information based organisations and advising on data protection.

Hood Group CEO, Simon Hood, comments: “Hood Group is committed to innovating insurance through data, and we are acutely aware of our duty of care to manage that data responsibly and ensure its security. Kirsty’s appointment will initially focus on our preparations for the implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) next year. Looking ahead, her role will also involve collaborating with our innovation teams to make sure that, however we use data to enhance our products and services, it will be compliant with GDPR and any future legislative change surrounding data protection.”

P&O Ferries, Britain’s number one ferry company*, has partnered with data and technology driven insurance specialist, Hood Group, to launch its new travel insurance product following a competitive tender process.

The new offering developed by Hood Group for P&O Ferries gives customers the choice of buying their travel insurance independently or alongside their ferry ticket purchase. The range of insurance packages also offers a number of different options such as camping or motorcycling overseas so that travellers can tailor cover to suit their own unique requirements.

Hood Group will also work closely in partnership with P&O Ferries’ own team to deliver the digital marketing strategy to drive policy sales and complement customer base activity.

Paul Firkins, Business Development Director of Hood Group, says: “We’re delighted to have the opportunity to work with P&O Ferries. Our response to their brief demonstrated our clear understanding of what P&O Ferries wants to achieve and the collaborative approach that we adopt to ensure our mutual goals are reached.”

He continues: “More importantly to them is our focus on market disruptor innovation. P&O Ferries is a company with a proud heritage dedicated to delivering outstanding customer service and whatever this service is – whether onboard one of its ferries or providing online travel insurance – it has to be relevant. We’re looking forward to using our data and technology skills combined with our travel insurance distribution experience to create insurance solutions that will continually evolve to add real value to customers and deliver a sustainable and profitable business for P&O Ferries.”

This new contract is just one in a number of new partnerships that Hood Group has entered into in 2017. Having introduced its travel insurance proposition to the affinity market in 2014, the Group now works with a range of well known brands across a variety of industry sectors and provides competitive insurance cover to thousands of UK travellers.

* Globe Travel Awards 2017

esure Group, one of the UK’s leading personal lines insurers, has appointed data and technology-driven insurance specialist, Hood Group, to launch its new travel insurance product across its esure and Sheilas’ Wheels brands. The appointment of Hood Group follows a competitive tender process.

The new offering, developed by Hood Group, aims to give customers a choice of value for money travel insurance packages with a range of additional cover options enabling them to build a policy that suits their own individual needs. Children under the age of 18 will be covered free of charge on family policies.

Jon Wilshire, Chief Underwriting Officer at esure said: “Hood Group is committed to innovation meaning the travel insurance proposition it delivers will continue to evolve and be relevant to our customers.”

Paul Firkins, Business Development Director of Hood Group, added: “We are incredibly proud that one of the UK’s pre-eminent insurance brands has chosen our Group to deliver its travel insurance proposition. Since introducing our travel insurance proposition for the affinity market in 2014, we have successfully delivered travel insurance solutions for a range of well-known brands across a variety of industry sectors. Our drive to be at the forefront of using technology and data to enrich the solutions that we deliver, as well as our ability to provide sustainable and profitable growth through our digital marketing skills, is really striking a chord.”

The new partnership further cements Allianz Worldwide Partners relationship with Hood Group

Hood Group, the affinity insurance specialist, continues to expand its travel insurance portfolio by signing a new contract with Allianz Worldwide Partners and their underwriting arm AWP P&C SA in the UK, for one of the UK’s leading insurance providers, Legal & General.

The deal was secured based on Allianz Worldwide Partners’ competitive long-term pricing strategy combined with its status as a global player in the travel market.

Bruce Reid, Commercial Director at Hood Group comments, “We have developed a new travel insurance proposition for Legal & General customers, so we’re delighted to now have Allianz Worldwide Partners on board. As an A rated carrier, their underwriting arm AWP P&C SA offers tremendous financial stability, but more importantly they have proved themselves to be able to adapt to changing market conditions. We’re pleased that this new partnership will continue to build upon and strengthen our relationship with them.”

Lee Taylor, Chief Sales Officer for North & CEE for Allianz Worldwide Partners, adds, “As a well-respected brand in the financial retail sector, Legal & General is a great addition to our travel portfolio. We look forward to working closely with them and Hood Group to maximize the potential that the brand has across multiple distribution channels, as well as harnessing the Legal & General reputation as a strong and reliable brand.

“This new partnership comes as a result of our already strong relationship with Hood Group, which we continue to nurture by delivering quality insurance solutions that meet today’s market demands.”

Cheryl Agius, CEO of Legal & General’s General Insurance business comments, “We’re committed to helping to make our customers’ lives as easy as possible. We are delighted to be working with Allianz Worldwide Partners as their range of products makes them a perfect fit for our travel insurance offering. We look forward to continuing to grow and offer a broad and competitive range of travel insurance products across all of our distribution channels.”

We are delighted to announce that Hood Group has again been awarded a Gold Southend Business and Community Charter Award.

The gold award, which we’ve held since 2015, recognises our participation and support of the local community.

The Charter Committee assessed various aspects of our community engagement, including

our awareness of the local issues and commitment to the community,
the involvement of directors in community initiatives,
employee engagement with community,
philanthropy, including our charitable donations,
local sourcing of goods and services,
sourcing local staff, and
youth employment
Staff across the business have participated in community activities; including running annual family fun days to raise funds, filling shoe boxes with Christmas gifts for local children and volunteering with local charities.

Sheila Milbourne, who leads Hood Group’s community support efforts, says ‘We are delighted to have retained the Gold award and have really enjoyed getting involved with the local community. We are looking forward to continuing our work and hopefully retaining the award for another year!’