iNED State of the Market Forum

The annual “State of the Market Forum” brings together three leading industry figures and is consistently one of the most popular iNED events. It provides NEDs who are not working day to day in an executive role a unique opportunity to hear the thoughts of each of these industry leaders on the factors that will influence the London Market in the near and medium term.

This year our speakers are: Ailsa King, Chief Commercial Officer of Marsh McLennan UK; Sir Charles Roxburgh, Chair of Lloyd’s; and Christopher Townsend, Member of the Board of Management of Allianz SE. The Forum will include a Q&A session to allow delegates to pose their own questions direct to our speakers.

As always, we have asked the speakers to interpret their brief widely to embrace whatever developments they believe may be most significant in shaping our Market. Certainly, they will not be short of possible topics. As well as facing ongoing geopolitical uncertainty, the Market is becoming increasingly competitive at a time when advances in technology bring opportunities to deploy new approaches to distribution as well as new approaches to underwriting. At the same time Market participants must continue to manage issues as diverse as: the trends associated with global warming; the need to win the war for talent; and the requirement to be operationally resilient in the face of an increased cyber threat.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

By attending this event, delegates should be able to:

• Identify the key issues confronting the London Market for 2026 and beyond as reflected in the views of the three industry leaders.
• Articulate the factors shaping the future development of the London Market and the opportunities and risks for current market participants.
• Challenge more effectively their respective organisation’s plans in the context of the current market dynamics.

Speaker(s)

Ailsa King
Chief Commercial Officer, Marsh McLennan UK

Ailsa King is Chief Commercial Officer for Marsh McLennan UK responsible for collaborative growth across Marsh, Mercer, Guy Carpenter and Oliver Wyman in the UK, addressing client needs in Risk, Strategy and People. Prior to this role, Ailsa was the CEO of Marsh’s Risk Management business, serving Marsh’s large and complex clients.

Ailsa joined Marsh in April 2017 as Chief Client Officer, working across the firm’s operations in the UK to lead the development of risk solutions to assist clients in mitigating the challenges they face.

In addition to her role leading client relationships and growth across the four Marsh McLennan businesses, Ailsa chairs Marsh’s Quality Council, the Conduct and Culture Committee and the Marsh Services Limited Board.  

Chris Townsend
Board Member, Allianz SE

As of January 1, 2021, Chris Townsend is a Member of the Board of Management of Allianz SE, overseeing the Group’s Global Insurance Lines, Reinsurance, Anglo Mar- kets, Middle East and Africa. Since 2023, Chris has assumed additional responsibility for the Ibero LatAm region and for the Commercial business at Allianz globally.
A highly experienced financial services executive across both the Life and P&C Insurance sectors who has lived and worked across four continents over the past 30 years. He has a proven track record of developing and executing strategy, building- leadership teams, driving profitable growth and improving both customer and share- holder outcomes. He is experienced across growth, turnaround, and transformation- situations and has led large teams across multiple jurisdictions and highly complex scaled businesses across both the consumer and commercial sectors.
Chris began his career in 1989 with Aviva in London and moved to AIG in 1991 where he spent 20 years leading businesses living and working in UK, US, Asia and Austral- asia, including CEO of Asia Pacific. In 2012, Chris moved back to Hong Kong to be- come the CEO for MetLife in Asia and was part of the Group Executive Committee of MetLife. In 2018, he returned to AIG to become the CEO International based in Hong Kong and London, responsible for all of AIG’s general insurance business outside of the USA.

Sir Charles Roxburgh
Chair, Lloyd's

Sir Charles Roxburgh KCB was appointed Chair of Lloyd’s in September 2024, with his tenure commencing in May 2025. He brings to the role extensive leadership experience in both the public and private sectors.
From 2016 to 2022 he served as Second Permanent Secretary of the Treasury. From February 2013 he was Director-General of Financial Services at the Treasury, which saw him sit on the Financial Stability Board and represent the Treasury on the Bank of England’s Financial Policy Committee.
Before entering in the public sector, Sir Charles spent 26 years at McKinsey. His roles there included Co-Head of the Global Strategy Practice, Head of the UK Financial Institutions Group and Director of the McKinsey Global Institute. In 1992, he was the lead consultant working with the Lloyd’s Taskforce and then Chair, Sir David Rowland, on Lloyd’s 1993 Business Plan and 1995-1996 Reconstruction and Renewal Plan.
Sir Charles is also an Independent Non-executive Director of Shell PLC and Non-Executive Member of Global Council of Herbert Smith Freehills. From 2023 to early 2025, he was the Non-Executive Chair of Legal & General America.
Sir Charles was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in the 2022 Birthday Honours for services to Government.