An interview with Ståle Hansen, CEO, Skuld – a Nor-Shipping Thought Leader
With 126 years of industry experience behind it, Skuld, a world leading marine insurer, should have “seen it all”. However, global health crises, geopolitical unrest and the need for industry transformation are ushering in a new age, with new challenges. Here Ståle Hansen, Skuld CEO, discusses the need for calm heads, and ever closer collaboration, to ensure the industry stays on course.
“It was a case of out of the frying pan, into the fire,” admits Ståle Hansen, CEO at Skuld for eight of his twenty years at the Oslo-headquartered insurance giant.
“The pandemic, and all the claims associated with it, was starting to ease, shipping patterns were returning to near normal, and then the war in Ukraine started. As we all know, that ushered in human tragedy of inconceivable proportions, and a wave of necessary sanctions that quickly dispelled any sense of ‘business as usual’.
“It’s been a busy, and challenging, few years.”
Almost overnight, Hansen states, Skuld, which had a leading position with Russian shipowners, had to terminate long-standing relationships, while the impact on Skuld’s existing members was, in some cases, even more drastic.
A matter of trust
“Suddenly we had members with vessels locked into Ukraine ports,” he explains. “The assets and cargoes are one thing, but the crews, and ensuring their safety, is another – that quickly becomes top priority.”
As such, the past year has seen specialist Skuld teams leveraging their industry expertise, networks and close relationships with other insurers to repatriate crews and release vessels, continually working to deliver on their company purpose statement (“Protecting Ocean Industries”) in the most challenging circumstances imaginable.
“There have been numerous, very complex situations,” Hansen notes. “Each vessel has multiple insurers, covering, for example, P&I, hull and machinery, war insurance, and the cargo, so that demands reliable, open and committed collaboration. And of course, if vessels are trapped for too long then the owners can claim a total constructive loss, which can lead to the insurers becoming shipowners.”
He smiles: “So, there’s a lot at stake. But we’re not exactly new to this. We know what we’re doing and make sure that all our stakeholders, from customers to the other insurance partners we work with, can rely on us.
“That trust is fundamentally important, and not just to our success, but to our values as a business. “That is who we are, we are Skuld.”
Collective strength
And this is the essence of Hansen’s philosophy during today’s conversation.
He’s here to discuss Skuld’s decision to renew its role of ‘Leading Partner’ at Nor-Shipping 2023 (taking place 6-9 June in Oslo and Lillestrøm), but quickly segues to the event’s main theme this year, which is #PartnerShip.
“That is a very interesting choice,” he comments, “and it couldn’t be more timely. It’s one thing that it chimes with the way we work as a business, but, from a wider perspective, it’s how we NEED to work as an industry. You can see that in the issues we’ve just mentioned – global pandemics and conflicts – but it’s also intrinsically important to the challenges, and opportunities, we face in terms of sustainable development.
“No one can tackle such a changing, unpredictable landscape alone. We all need partners.”
As Hansen implies, Skuld already has them.
Deep ties
Partnership is at the core of Skuld’s business model.
The marine insurer, which employs around 300 people in 11 locations worldwide (including Japan, after a new office opening last year), operates as a mutual insurance association providing risk pooling, claims services, loss prevention and overall representation for its members. Those same members, which essentially own the business, elect a board and committee, which then appoint the executive management team, including Hansen.
“So, we’re not just a service provider,” the CEO explains, “we’re their business, or rather we are them. We work closely to understand one another and tailor our products for their evolving business needs. In fact, I think you could say we work even closer now, given the challenges we’ve faced. Some relationships get forced apart by difficulty, but I’m pleased to report the opposite in our case. Loyalty has never been higher.”
Interestingly, this way of working extends to interaction with other insurers. Skuld is a member of the International Group of P&I Clubs, an organisation of 13 ‘competitors’ that, together, provide liability cover for around 90% of global ocean-going tonnage.
“We share, that’s the cornerstone of the group,” Hansen says, adding: “And that means everything from knowledge to large loss exposures. Our aim is keeping this essential industry thriving, and we realise that is more important than individual competition. There’s a ‘greater good’ here – the future of shipping.”
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