Select 74 Chairman’s Summary – Season 2006/2007
60 members and guests attended our season opening meeting on 5 October, where we were delighted to welcome Dr Michael O’Donnell, Chief Medical Officer for Unum Provident as our speaker. Dr O’Donnell presented on the future of diagnostic techniques, their practicalities, and costs, and the potential of laboratory testing with particular regard to saliva and hair testing. This was a particularly informative presentation for the underwriters who are becoming more concerned with Class A drug misuse and how best to detect it at underwriting stage.
Our Christmas meeting was held slightly later than normal on the 14th December but was extremely well attended by 85 members and guests, and saw us welcoming Melissa Collett from the Financial Ombudsman Service and Kevin Carr from LifeSearch. The theme of our meeting was “Getting cases on the books – Opportunities and risks”. Kevin presented the pro’s and con’s from the sales perspective and Melissa provided an independent FOS view on how to avoid some of the inevitable pitfalls that face us. As always, such a presentation was well received and provoked some lively debate.
Our third meeting of the season was held on 22 March where over 90 attendees (and standing room only) were delighted to welcome a long time friend and supporter of Select 74 Dr Geoffrey Robb – Consultant Physician at Epsom and St Helier Hospital and CMO with Friends Provident and RGA UK. Dr Robb presented on his specialist subject Diabetes which provoked much debate and interest. Special thanks are due to Nicky Bray (Friends Provident), who kindly assisted us with a temporary lap-top problem by lending us hers.
Our final meeting of the year was on 10th May and attended by 75 members and guests. We were hugely grateful that Keith Robertson ( Chief Underwriter at Lincoln UK), allowed his arm to be twisted by Mary Sinclair-Porter and agreed to present at our final meeting at short notice. Keith turned to his specialist subjects of “Sex, Drugs and Rock n Roll “, and provided a very informative trip through a great range of Lifestyle risks in Insurance, all delivered in his own inimitable and entertaining style.
As I hand the Select 74 Chair to the capable hands of Mary Sinclair-Porter, I have reflected on the great privilege it has been for me to serve as Chair of this excellent club for the past 2 years, and I would like to extend my grateful thanks to my fellow committee members, and to you the membership for making my stint a very happy and fulfilling one.
Long may Select 74 prosper!
Jon Parker
Click here to return to the main Annual Reports page.