IGREA is ready for action now board formally elected

Last month the membership, currently risk managers with 18 of Spain’s largest listed companies, elected Daniel San Millan, Risk Manager at Ferrovial, as President, Vicente Martin of Endesa as Secretary and Cristina San Sebastian of Iberdrola as Treasurer. Each have been elected for a period of three years.

Javier Navas Oloriz, the former General Manager of AGERS, the Spanish risk and insurance association, who left when Mr. San Millan and other risk manager board members were voted off the board at AGERS, the more broad-based risk and insurance management group, has been appointed as General Manager of IGREA.

Miguel Angel Macias, the former Chairman of AGERS and Risk Manager for FCC, the construction group, who joined Mr. San Millan and other senior ex-AGERS officers to form IGREA, is no longer eligible to be a member of the new group.

hide

This is because FCC’s insurance operation was bought by broker Aon and Mr. Macias went with the operation. Brokers are not allowed to be members of IGREA as part of its firm commitment to remain independent of the brokers and insurers.

Mr. San Millan told Commercial Risk Europe that he is delighted that about 65% of the IBEX 35 companies have already joined IGREA and the number continues to rise.

He said that he is pleased that the elections are now complete and the association has been ‘legitimised’ so that it can really focus on the activities that it was formed to carry out.

“We have now fixed the strategy for the year and things are developing very quickly especially as we do not have a full-time structure. We have received a very warm welcome from the market and we are delighted that we already have 18 of the top companies as members. The strategy now is to really establish a presence in the Spanish insurance market to enable us to play a role in the key issues,” said Mr. San Millan.

The Risk Manager of Ferrovial, the Madrid-based group that owns Heathrow and Gatwick airports, said that meetings have been fixed with UNESPA, the association of insurers, in May and also with ADECOSE, the brokers’ association.

“We are also commencing formal relationships with other important agencies in the market. Now that we are maturing we are able to pursue the founding principles of IGREA which is to develop the risk management profession in Spain and create a body to advance and protect the interests of the risk management profession in this country,” said Mr. San Millan.

The main regular activity of IGREA is to hold a series of meetings, roughly once every two months, during which an individual leads the discussion with a presentation on a key topic and this starts a dialogue with the group. “This has a lot of value and we can combine a lot of experience and expertise under no pressure from insurers and brokers,” explained Mr. San Millan.

He added that the other main activity of the group will be lobbying. “We want to play in the same league as UNESPA and ADECOSE to ensure that the interests of the risk managers and insurance buyers are protected and advanced. We have started work already with FERMA and ECIROA on the topic of Solvency II because we are worried about the potential impact on captives. It is very good that these pan-European bodies are working on this subject and lobbying the legislators because it is important that when a new law is designed the legislators talk to and listen to the big insurance buyers,” said Mr. San Millan.

To find out more about IGREA go to www.igrea.es.