EPISODE · May 22, 2024 · 1H
Oliver Wyman Series: Brian McDermott – Inside Victors $3bn InsurTech Success
from Scouting for Growth · host Sabine VdL
On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Brian McDermott, Chief Information Officer at Victor Insurance. This podcast will be a little bit different. Steven Abel will join us to highlight Oliver Wyman's relationship with Victor Insurance, a Marsh McLennan subsidiary. Indeed, in the complex world of business, speed to value when delivering technology is critical & Victor Insurance has found a critical partner in the Oliver Wyman team. KEY TAKEAWAYS An MGA is a company appointed by the insurer, typically the carrier, to exercise supervision & oversight on specific & targeted insurance programmes. We do everything an insurance company does, but we don’t source the capital; the carrier provides the capital for us, and they manage the risk associated with it. We underwrite the risk on behalf of others & handle a lot of the administration on behalf of the carrier, including claims processing, servicing, transaction processing, connecting with the broker, handling insurance fees, & processing any financial aspects. We operate in 8 countries. The majority of the revenues & premiums derive from the US, around 80% left-side of the globe, 20% right-side. But we do see immense opportunity on the right side of the globe, as it’s an untapped market for products & service offerings we can provide. That’s a key strategic focus as we proceed. Typically, InsurTechs’ challenges include having a great product but limited premium running through the platform because of the leverage they have with their carriers to bring those products onto the platform. We differ from Marsh McLennan in that we’re a full, front-to-back insurance company: we place products through our digital portal experiences, provide policy servicing, process claims, report data, perform analytics, & underwriting. Marsh McLennan is a re-insurance broker; they don’t typically do underwriting. Our technology environments differ in that they’re built for different scales – we’re low-premium, high-volume; March McLennan operates in a different market segment: enterprise and high-end businesses; we operate in a small/micro market. We have to build scalable, fast products, whereas Marsh is more of a heavy-touch, relationship-based business with their clients. So it’s difficult to align with them completely, but there are a number of areas around complementary services. BEST MOMENTS ‘We’re trying to become the Amazon for brokers in the small, commercial & speciality marketplace.’ ‘One of the key challenges I have is to make sure that we can modernise while we integrate as we go on our journey towards the future.’ ‘We sit in the middle of the value chain with the broker on the left-hand side, supporting the insured, & the carrier on the right, they provide the capital to us.’ ‘We need to make sure that we harvest the data insights that we have: historical claims & underwriting data - & augment it with tools like machine learning, AI, data ingestion & enrichment.’ ABOUT THE GUESTS Brian McDermott was the Chief Information Officer (CIO) at Victor Insurance, a leading global provider of specialty insurance programs & a subsidiary of Marsh McLennan. Brian brings a wealth of experience to his role, with a career spanning more than 30 years in diverse industries such as retail, insurance, finance, & government. Known for his disruptive thinking and innovation within the IT field, Brian is constantly exploring new ways to leverage contemporary technology & drive digital transformation within the insurance industry. In his role as CIO, Brian is keen to embrace modern technologies & help drive the agenda within the broader Marsh McLennan corporation. His unique perspective, stemming from Victor Insurance's position as a high-volume, high-transaction business, enables him to provide valuable input on the digital connection between the market & the brokers & clients he works with. As a partner at Oliver Wyman, Steve Abel helps clients solve complex problems & lead teams to deliver insights that you can trust. Steve acquired over 25 years of experience in consulting & executive roles, delivering value to organizations via smart technological deployment. Steve’s specialties include program management, operations, shared services, enabling technologies, business process reengineering, finance-leading practices, insurance products & data, actuarial platforms, machine learning, AI, cloud solutions, and business & technical architecture. Steve is passionate about helping clients achieve their strategic goals & optimize their performance, while fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation, & excellence. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at [email protected]
What this episode covers
Speed to value is no longer a “nice to have” in insurance. It’s a competitive necessity. In this episode of Scouting for Growth, Sabine VanderLinden speaks with Brian McDermott, Chief Information Officer at Victor Insurance, joined by Steve Abel, Partner at Oliver Wyman, to unpack how a global MGA is modernising at scale—without losing momentum, trust, or operational resilience. This episode is different by design. It offers a rare, behind-the-scenes look at how Victor Insurance, a Marsh McLennan subsidiary, is leveraging strategic partnerships to accelerate technology delivery in one of the most complex parts of the insurance value chain. Brian starts by demystifying what an MGA (Managing General Agent) really is. Victor sits squarely in the middle of the ecosystem: brokers on one side, carriers on the other. While the carrier provides capital and holds the risk, Victor underwrites, administers, services, processes claims, manages data, and delivers digital customer experiences—at scale. In short, Victor does everything an insurer does, except hold the balance sheet. Operating across eight countries, with roughly 80% of premiums generated in the US, Victor is now setting its sights on the “right side of the globe”—international markets that remain largely untapped for scalable, digitally delivered specialty products. That ambition puts enormous pressure on technology: platforms must be fast, modular, and capable of handling low-premium, high-volume transactions with precision. This is where Oliver Wyman comes in. Steve Abel explains why traditional, long-cycle technology programmes no longer work in this environment. The challenge isn’t just modernising legacy systems—it’s doing so while continuing to integrate, scale, and deliver value. Together, Victor and Oliver Wyman are focused on reducing friction from idea to implementation, proving value early, and avoiding the classic trap of multi-year transformations that deliver too late. A particularly sharp contrast emerges between Victor and its parent, Marsh McLennan. While Marsh operates in a high-touch, enterprise-focused, relationship-driven model, Victor functions more like a digital marketplace—what Brian calls an ambition to become “the Amazon for brokers” in the small commercial and specialty space. That difference fundamentally shapes technology choices, data strategy, and operating models. Data sits at the heart of Victor’s next phase of growth. Harvesting historical underwriting and claims data—and augmenting it with machine learning, AI, and enriched external data sources—is critical to improving decision-making, broker experience, and speed. For enterprise leaders, this episode delivers: A clear-eyed view of MGA economics and operating models Practical insight into modernising while scaling globally Lessons on partnering effectively to accelerate tech delivery A case study in aligning innovation with real commercial outcomes For InsurTechs and founders, it’s a valuable reality check on: Why great products often struggle to scale without carrier leverage How incumbents think about speed, risk, and value creation 🎧 If you’re navigating digital transformation in insurance, building platforms at scale, or trying to shorten the distance between strategy and execution—this episode is essential listening. Because in today’s market, speed to value is strategy.
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Oliver Wyman Series: Brian McDermott – Inside Victors $3bn InsurTech Success
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