The co-founders of London-based Rising Edge aimed to create something different when they decided to launch a managing general agent in 2021, which focuses solely on directors and officers liability insurance.Executive SummarySelective underwriting practices from a team with decades of experience and cutting-edge risk insights are giving recently launched MGA startup Rising Edge its edge in the market for low-layer D&O business. Being risk-aware stewards of capacity is one part of the business formula that executives Philippe Gouraud and Yoel Brightman described to CM International Editor L.S. Howard. The other involves educating insureds about how to avoid D&O claims and how to minimize the damage when securities lawsuits come their way.
CEO Philippe Gouraud and Managing Director Yoel Brightman wanted to build a long-lasting, resilient business for all the market cycles—by creating an operating model that would have risk management at its core both for Rising Edge’s capacity providers and for insureds. It uses cutting-edge data and analytics that support its empowered underwriters to make quick decisions while always aiming to maintain profits.
By creating a company with the vision they wanted, “we could actually stop moaning about the market and implement the changes we wanted to achieve,” said Gouraud. (He previously held distribution leadership and client management roles at AXA XL, XL Catlin and AIG.)