Construction and Energy Global Chief Underwriting Officer Wouter Haak reflects on his 25 years at AXA XL

Authored by AXA XL Global Chief Underwriting Officer for Construction and Energy Wouter Haak

Wouter Haak, global chief underwriting officer for construction and energy, this week celebrates 25 years of working at AXA XL. He discusses his career so far, the challenges and opportunities in the construction and energy market for both clients and insurers, and what the future might hold.

Wouter, congratulations on your 25th anniversary at AXA XL. Can you tell us a little about your career and some of the highlights so far?

Thank you. I am grateful for the opportunities that I have had in my career to travel, to meet and work with people from all over the world, and to keep learning in an area of business that is changing fast.

Graduated with a degree in chemical engineering from Delft University in the Netherlands I started my career in an engineering and design company – both in an office environment and out on site. This gave mesome valuable experiences; for example, I was involved in the design, testing, commission, and start-up of an underground gas storage facility – a process that is extremely relevant to today’s Carbon Capture Underground Storage (CCUS) in the renewable energy field.

In a second step I worked as a risk engineer/consultant in insurance – first with a broker and then with AXA XL – for a couple of years. Again, this gave me some valuable insights into risk and our client’s key operations that I have taken with me into underwriting. In 2002 I began an underwriting role and during the following 22 years have held various roles at AXA XL predecessor companies and AXA XL, including leading the Dutch property team, then the Benelux property team, having responsibility for the French team, supporting setting up a construction team in Benelux and in person underwriting energy business within the property unit. In May 2020 I made the leap to head the energy team for Europe, followed shortly after October 2020 in to GCUO Energy and then, in 2022, construction was added to the GCUO role.

I’ve been lucky to work with lots of great people around the world and, when I was given an opportunity to take on a new challenge, I always jumped. I have had experience of many relevant areas – writing engineering reports, managing, and motivating teams, the excitement of making deals as an underwriter and the technical know-how of underwriting global programmes with captives, and more. On top always enjoyed the luxury of having pragmatic bosses who provided freedom flexibility humour and support creating trust on one side with positive critical note on the other. The journey has been interesting – and there’s much more to come!

You are currently GCUO for energy and construction. How have things changed over the course of your career – for construction and energy underwriting teams and for your clients? And what are the skills you can bring to this role?

A lot has changed! When I first started working 31 years ago, there were no smart phones, for example, indeed nobody used a mobile phone, no GPS route planners so no strict route but many ways to go. There was much less information readily available, in many ways it was a simpler time. Of course, there are benefits to having much more information and data, but it can also sometimes mean people feel overloaded. I am, by nature, a pragmatic and no-nonsense person and I think that helps me to manage teams and keep them focused on the job we need to do for our clients.

One of the important things that I strive to balance now in my role and our company is the need to comply with governance standards versus our business needs. Governance is hugely important, of course, but it is not the purpose of what we do. We need to remember to focus our efforts on helping our clients with their risks and opportunities in the construction and energy space. I am lucky to be surrounded by lots of talented and smart people with a collaborative mind set. And at the same time work within segments Construction and Energy which with the climate topic are the most dynamic. It takes a lot of energy, but I have plenty of that and teams are enthusiastic.

In terms of the construction and energy markets a lot has changed. Off the back of several periods of poor performance for the markets generally in 2013 to 2019 and 2017 to 2019, the construction and energy markets are now in much better shape thanks to several consecutive years of premium rate increases, more robust terms and conditions, strategy amendment and better reinsurance protection. In many cases the risks have become bigger and more volatile over this period, and our clients need more from their coverage. We are learning about the new challenges, and I believe we will be able to continue to underwrite profitably while providing our clients with the risk assessment, risk transfer and customized support they need.

These are exciting times for our construction and energy teams for many reasons, not least because these two sectors will, naturally, be at the forefront of the energy transition and our clients in these areas are facing challenges and opportunities every day as they – and we – strive to meet the 2050 net-zero goal.

The energy transition is, as you have mentioned, a huge focus for your clients as well as for AXA XL. Can you tell us about some of the opportunities and challenges here and how you and your teams are addressing them?

There are lots of new opportunities. For example, large, futuristic energy projects are being built which require the skills first of our construction experts and then the energy teams. This is a really dynamic time for the energy and construction sectors. But we need to bear in mind that it is a tough period for some existing clients who have good intentions to move towards carbon neutrality but for whom this requires a huge overhaul.

From an underwriting standpoint, underwriting renewable energy is not overly complex – we can apply the skills and underwriting discipline we already have in construction and energy. Where it is challenging, particularly in an industry like insurance which relies heavily on past loss history and data, is that much of the technology is prototypical. Besides our construction and energy reinsurance treaties included coverage for renewable energy as our reinsurers partners face the same challenges.

We have great energy and construction teams who are up for this challenge, and the flow of opportunities will be huge. It’s all about adding resources within existing teams while avoiding over-complication.

You are celebrating 25 years at AXA XL, but you clearly have your eyes on the future. What do you see as the important challenges in the years to come?

Keeping teams interesting energised -one of the most interesting and rewarding parts of my role. As I have mentioned, we will need to add new skillsets to our teams, but we also need to retain a focus on our core underwriting strengths. Luckily, we can rely on our existing underwriters who are dealing with the (new) topics for a longer time and who have embraced the future opportunities. So, I am looking forward to working with our teams, and our clients, as we all work towards the important goal of net-zero.

I believe that not only do we need to focus on how we help our clients and our company meet this target, but we all need to think about what we can be doing – on a personal level – to meet this goal. We need to look at our own behaviours. The move to a lower carbon world won’t just mean reducing the supply of certain products and commodities, it also will require a shift in demand. To pollute less, we need to think about what we spend, what we consume, and how. It’s about less or maybe not less but different, less polluting.

There are lots of changes that we can all make, like cycling instead of driving to the shops for our day-to-day grocery, eating less meat, chose purchasing goods which have travelled less, buying fewer clothes and so on, that will help us all to play our part in the drive to net zero.