UNA Alliance

Last week, UNA was delighted to welcome its delegates from this year’s UNAversity Programme for their final session before graduating from their ILM Programme.

The UNA Introduction to Management Programme, is run in conjunction with Zing 365, UNA’s long- standing training partners and has recently celebrated its 10^th anniversary. 

As ever, this year’s intake comes from delegates from around the UNA Membership and is a mixture of online and in-person modules. 

The programme itself consists of 7 different modules spread over a 6 month period. Modules range from Communication Skills to Project Management, from Emotional Intelligence to Problem Solving and Decision Making.

One of the main benefits of the programme, is offering delegates the opportunity to meet and network with other candidates from across the UNA Member Companies; swapping learning experiences from those in similar roles and realising that you’re part of a much wider Alliance of like-minded organisations.

Next year’s programme will be kicking off at the end of September, when we look forward to welcoming our next cohort of delegates.

Having held our first UNA Board Meeting of the year, we were delighted to welcome a new UNA Board Member.

Gary Uren of SSR has recently taken over the helm from his colleague John Ludley, and here we learn more about his career in insurance....

 (Gary Uren pictured left, taking the baton from John Ludley)

Gary, tell us a bit about your career to date and how the world of insurance has altered since you started out? 

After being a bit all eggs in one basket trying to be a pro footballer, I started out in insurance in 1986 under the government training scheme at that time.  As my father bluntly put it, get out there and start earning some money.  Ironically, I was nearly doubling my insurance weekly wage of £27.50 playing amateur football every week at the time! 

UNA is delighted to report that it has once again been shortlisted for the prestigious Broker Innovation Awards.

The awards will be presented in September, when we will be seeking a hat-trick of wins in the Broker Network of the Year category.

Fingers crossed and congratulations to all involved!

Acrisure, a fast-growing fintech leader that operates a top-10 global insurance broker, has announced its acquisition of UNA Member Russell Scanlan, the distinguished bespoke insurance brokerage and risk manager. The deal is expected to close in the near term, pending FCA regulatory approvals.

To date in 2022, Acrisure has completed or has under letter of intent 100 acquisitions, continuing its industry-leading M&A pace. Established in Nottingham in 1881, Russell Scanlan prides itself on a strong professional pedigree built through advising on all forms of commercial insurance, from large corporates through to SMEs, across multiple and specialist sectors and also for private clients. As part of Acrisure, the Russell Scanlan team will now benefit from Acrisure’s global network of insurance peers as well as access to the Company’s world-class AI systems and technology. 

In the second of our Member Spotlight articles, this month it's the time of Berns Brett and more specifically, their Irish office.

Since Brexit, some UNA members have had issues dealing with Irish clients or Irish subsidiaries. By introducing BBi Ireland to UNA members, they can help with all your Irish risks. BBi Ireland provides quality independent advice on all aspects of corporate and personal insurance, risk management and business continuity.