‘The player manager’: Aon’s Dominic Christian on broking and leadership in a changing market

Dominic Christian has built a career at the sharp end of broking, holding such senior roles as CEO of Aon Benfield, CEO of Aon UK, and deputy chairman of Lloyd’s from 2020 to 2023.

Now global chairman of Aon reinsurance Solutions and a member of Aon’s global executive, he has led through market cycles, transformational events and crises, and shifting client expectations.

All these experiences have shaped his views on leadership.

“The role of purpose and culture in organisations is far stronger than when I started,” he tells GR. “You’ve got to be open, flexible, collaborative, at ease with yourself, and prepared to thrive on any area of the pitch.”

Today’s leaders, he believes, should operate as “player-coaches”, equally capable of engaging with global trends and drilling into the specifics of client need.

“Leaders need to talk to mega-trends – trade, technology, weather, and workforce – and link them to the daily realities of our business. The challenge is to stop them drifting into the abstract and keep them grounded in practical relevance.”

For Christian, leadership now demands a wider lens. “You can’t see your company in isolation. It’s part of a much bigger community,” he says. “Our relevance depends on understanding how the world is changing and how those changes translate into client value.”

He points to the industry’s handling of the war in Ukraine as one relevant example.

“Large, geopolitical losses are feeding into reinsurance – aviation, political risk, marine. The challenge is to keep those markets sustainable while still paying claims quickly and fairly.”

Christian’s time in the London market has given him a nuanced view of the broker–underwriter relationship.

“A broker’s first instinct tends to be the client; an underwriter’s tends to be capital,” he says. “It doesn’t mean brokers ignore capital or underwriters ignore clients – the best on both sides understand both, but the perspectives are different.”

He rejects the notion that brokers are simply intermediaries. “Some people think brokers are just a bridge. I don’t agree. We have to be at the centre of risk understanding – right at the beginning of the process – helping clients assess their exposures before even thinking about risk transfer.”

The market’s traditional boundaries are less rigid than they once were, he suggests. “The fence between brokers and underwriters has become lower. Activities once exclusive to one side are now managed by both, with MGAs accelerating that change,” he says.

Technical expertise, he argues, is essential. “A good broker understands capital and financial dynamics, just as a good underwriter is curious about new risks. “We’re in an exciting phase of product development – from cyber to carbon to parametric products – and that requires collaboration right across the value chain.”

For Christian, working with clients remains the most rewarding part of the job. “The fun part is always clients – whether it’s insurers, reinsurers, corporates or specialist buyers like P&I clubs. The inspiration goes both ways, particularly when working with colleagues at the start of their careers.”

Christian is upbeat about the scale and sophistication of new capital entering the re/insurance industry, suggesting it bodes well for the future of risk transfer.

“We’ve seen very creative and innovative capital structures,” he says. “There’s a lot of smart capital in the market – far more informed and data-driven than in previous cycles. Smart people are trading with smart people.”

He pushes back against the idea that little new capital is arriving and there being a relative lack of new reinsurers forming.

“It’s just that the capital hasn’t taken an historically familiar form,” he says. “There’s significant capital entering the industry through mechanisms that may be behind another party or not labelled in the traditional way.”

That capital is fuelling product innovation, he thinks.

“Facultative facilities are growing rapidly. Corporate catastrophe towers are becoming more significant. We’ve developed our Cyber Surge stop-loss cover that provides immediate protection in specific circumstances without the need for an event definition.

“There’s more we can do in casualty, and plenty of scope to use different capital sources – whether Lloyd’s, ILS or other vehicles – to supply capacity directly to clients.”

None of this, he insists, works without analytics. “Wherever you are in the cycle, analytics come first. We’ll never declare victory; there’s always more to learn and more to offer.”

Understanding the numbers is no longer optional for leaders, he emphasises. “Even if you’re not a natural mathematician, you need to understand catastrophe modelling and other tools,” he says.

“It’s about giving the best possible advice – whether that’s on climate perils, cyber aggregation, or the inflationary effects of tariffs.”

Christian’s three years as the deputy chairman of Lloyd’s of London coincided with a period of cultural renewal, as the market prepared for a turn that has since brought rebounded profits.

“Lloyd’s rightly sees itself as a leader – in capital, customers, underwriters, brokers, policymakers, and talent,” he says. “The quality of people is excellent. The current and recent leadership teams have done a really good job attracting quality capital in inventive ways.”

The market’s appeal now stretches across geographies and sectors. “Most people see Lloyd’s as a place worth exploring – somewhere they can invest capital in ways that add value. The presence of such a high percentage of the world’s leading insurers is a great credit to the market.”

He says he sees Lloyd’s as better positioned for both emerging and traditional risks. “It’s much easier to do business there now. It’s tackling the emerging risks of the age while still dealing with the traditional ones, such as the Baltimore bridge loss. The culture has strengthened.”

Future priorities, he believes, include maintaining vigilance in a shifting cycle. “Leadership will be thinking about how to attract capital with a different story. You’ve seen that with Atradius entering credit syndicates or Santam bringing its African footprint to Lloyd’s.”

Messaging, he says, is as important as reform itself. “Lloyd’s needs to think about how it tells its story. Don’t try to boil the ocean – just win here and there. Claims is an area where it could make faster progress.”

The market’s decentralised structure is both its advantage and its challenge.

“A broker can go into Lloyd’s today and get a dozen opinions on a risk – that’s its brilliance. But getting 59 capital providers to agree on tech investment or infrastructure change is a big undertaking.”

Longer term, he sees complexity as the defining challenge.

“Risk is becoming more complex. Lloyd’s needs to keep building its knowledge and structures to address that. Captives are one example of a growth area that it has only recently started to pursue. Portfolio underwriting is another innovation that has worked well.”

As the market turns its attention to Monte Carlo and the traditional leadership meeting that acts as a starting gun to 1/1 reinsurance renewals negotiations, Christian expects cycle management to dominate conversations.

“More discussions will be about the inflationary impact of tariffs on loss ratios,” he says. “That ties back to trade and international relations – the umbrella themes.”

He acknowledges that a sudden event or series of events can change the narrative instantly. “As always, the latest hurricane will interrupt all of our conversations at Monte Carlo.”

For Christian, the enduring strength of the market lies not in systems or structures, but in the interaction between people.

“The beauty of Lloyd’s is that a broker can walk in, receive multiple views on a risk, and have a real conversation about price, coverage, and structure,” he says. “That’s the genius of it – and we must never lose it.”

To download the full Monte Carlo RVS 2025 annual issue of GR, click here.