Chairman & MD

Introduction

The chairman and Managing Director, holds a Fellowship in Reinsurance from The Chartered Insurance Institute, started his career with Misr Insurance Company in Egypt from 1975 till 1988, spent one year with Suez Canal Ins. co. then moved to Bahrain where he joined ARIG from 1989 till 1999.
Taking great turn in his career, he moved to Egypt end of 1999 as the Managing Director of AMIG, Arab Misr Insurance Group, ARIG’s subsidiary at that time.
In 2004 he moved to Delta Insurance Company as Managing Director until the end of 2006.

Mr. Shahid helped established Malath Insurance and Reinsurance Company in Saudi Arabia, Al Aqeela Insurance and Reinsurance Company in Syria and Arab Orient Takaful in Egypt. He also restructured Sahaa Ins. Company in Libya.

Education

Bachelor of Commerce, Insurance Sector, Cairo University, 1974

Post graduate diploma in insurance - General route, Cairo University 1981

Associateship in insurance, General route, The Chartered Insurance Institute, London, 1988

Fellowship in Reinsurances by Exam, The Chartered Insurance Institute, London 1993

Training and Professional

The first course of training, in 1979, was 6 months of extensive training at Willis Faber, London. No one can forget the 10 Trinity Square building.

Attended many technical, management and leadership skills training courses and workshops in Bahrain, London, Houston, Switzerland and Egypt.

Attended most of the regional and international conferences and symposiums in the field and lectured in many of them.

Lectured for years the Reinsurance subject for the Post Graduate Diploma, Cairo University.

Lecturing Takaful Insurance for MBA students at ESLSCA, Egypt.

Travelled extensively to most of the countries.

A journey of meeting challenges

Started his career in 1977 with Misr Ins. Co. Egypt where he worked in Marine Reinsurance Department until May 1988.
He moved to Suez Canal Insurance Company as their Reinsurance AGM.In 1989 he joined Arab Insurance Group (ARIG), Bahrain, the leading regional and international Reinsurer.

In 1999 he was seconded to Manage ARIG’s operation in Egypt (AMIG) where he worked on restructuring the company and was able to achieve excellent technical results.
Registered as an Insurance Consultant at FRA since 2002.
Between August 2004 and December 2006 he managed Delta Insurance Company. He managed the restructuring process and laid down entirely new infrastructure, underwriting guidelines, manuals, OPM, etc..
Established Three Companies, Malath Ins. & Reins. Co. SA, Al Aqeela Ins. & Reins. Co. In Syria and Arab Orient Ins. Co. in Egypt.

Restructured Sahara Insurance Company, Libya.
Started his own business in 2009, by establishing Trust Ins. & Reins. Consultancy, followed by Trust Insurance Broker in 2014.

Underwriting Experience

At Misr Insurance Company, where he was the Marine Hull and Cargo Assistant Underwriter, he then became the Senior Underwriter for the Marine Department. At that time, Misr 's premium income was EGP 150,000,000.

In 1989, as a Marine Assistant Manager, he moved to Arig, Bahrain. Arig has been heavily involved not only in the region, but also has a major international book of Hull and Cargo business.

In 1992, he moved to the Marine Energy department and became deeply involved in underwriting an international book of business, in the likes of BP, Shell, Mobile, Occidental, North Sea, Gulf of Mexico, NPC, NNPC, GUPCO.

In 1996, he was promoted as the Facultative Senior underwriter for Middle East and Africa including Iran and Turkey. He also managed a book of business approximately USD 100,000,000, which includes, Marine, Hull and Cargo, Offshore, Onshore energy, Property and Casualty as well as aviation.

Since 2000 he moved entirely to Managing / Establishing and Restructuring Insurance companies not only in Egypt but also in Saudi Arabia, Syria and Libya.

The implementation of the Law No. 18

The year 2008 marked the birth of reinsurance broking firms in Egypt.
Up until that point, the only brokers operating in the market were either individuals, or international brokers.
Beginnings are not easy, and as expected, the newly established companies had a number of challenges they had to immediately deal with. The most prominent of these challenges were:
The first challenge was market penetration. The newly established companies had competition, which is not that big of an issue when you are competing within one market. However, the competition was severe and from many sources. They had to deal with competition arising from the well established, professional, technically experienced markets like London, and also with competition rising from the regional markets and individual brokers that have been serving the Egyptian market for decades. This made market penetration a very tough task.
The second challenge was not a hurdle to new broking firms alone, but to all new entities established in the insurance sector. Unfortunately there was a big lack of personnel with enough technical and management expertise/skill. The newly established brokers were in dire need of human resources that would help the company create its image and more importantly create the needed work plan to develop an added value in the market.
The third challenge is perhaps specific to treaty business. Treaties are long term contracts. Many of the companies operating in the market back in 2008 were all well established companies that have been operating in the market for years. Their treaties have been placed and were being annually renewed with minimum change in the structure. That made it difficult in the beginning for the newly established brokers to have good treaty business.

However, with every challenge, comes an opportunity

Although it is rather difficult for new blood to find a toe print in the Egyptian Insurance market, Reinsurance Broking firms were able to find the path to their success in the market. How? With the support of the Egyptian Insurance Companies.
The Egyptian Insurance Companies, which we are truly grateful to, decided to support the newly established broking firms. They had come to the conclusion that the success of these firms shall most definitely have a positive impact on the market technically and administratively.
The companies had decided to help the broking firms, however, that did not mean it came with no baggage. To the contrary, at the beginning, operating in the market was no walk in the park. I shall speak from experience and say that at Trust, we were being tested with each and every piece of business. The business that was sent to us, and I am sure to all other newly established broking firms was usually no one’s favorite cup of tea. They were the smallest and most challenging of risks, risks that were not attractive to international brokers and rated reinsures. We were being tested by the reinsurers as well, who were waiting for you to give them the best business available in the market. They refused to support new brokers giving them business that was not anyone’s favorite.
So between cedants that only give you the most challenging of risks, and reinsurers that only accept the least challenging of risks we were constantly on a roller-coaster ride that seemed to last forever.
Until we passed our test…
Until our partners in the market started offering us a balanced book of business. A book of business that provided us with the means for building a solid relationship with our Reinsurance Market.
Until our reinsurers trusted us… preferred us… and shared with us their experience and their capacity.

"One of the incidents I will never forget

is when we received our first Cheque at TRUST. It was a cheque from Egyptian Takaful with an amount of EGP 2,450 and I personally regret not having a copy of that cheque to include in our brochure showing TRUST’s very first footstep… A foot step that marked the beginning of a journey that I cherish… A journey I have enjoyed and continue to enjoy every step of.”
It all started with Baby Steps… We cannot deny that… But even baby steps on the right path can take you very far.
So Finally… THANK YOU
THANK YOU FRA for laying down the structure, for fighting to make it work, for monitoring it at every step of the way
THANK YOU to our PARTNERS….For helping with the implementation, For trusting us, for believing in us…for giving us a chance to serve you
THANK YOU to our REINSURERS… For choosing to work with us, for trusting our technical expertise, for giving us the capacity that enabled us to serve our partners
THANK YOU to our team… For constantly looking for ways to improve, to develop, to grow.

“We are a team not only with experience in the field, but great passion to grow our business”