Artemis co-founder awarded CBE for services to insurance

It is our absolute pleasure to report that Rowan Douglas, CEO of the Capital, Science and Policy Practice at insurance and reinsurance broker Willis Group and a co-founder of Artemis, has been awarded a CBE for services to the Economy through Risk, Insurance and Sustainable Growth.

The CBE, Commander of the Order of the British Empire, is awarded to those deemed to have made a “distinguished, innovative contribution to any area,” according to the UK government’s website.

Rowan has been awarded the honour for his tireless work in recent years, promoting the importance of insurance for resilient development, the role of risk transfer for sustainable growth and his work across the UN promoting insurance and reinsurance in disaster risk management.

In the last twelve months a number of key initiatives that Rowan has worked to bring to fruition have gained significant profile through the outcomes of global agreements concluded in Sendai, New York and Paris.

Not least the 1-in-100 initiative, on financial reform and the corporate disclosure of climate and disaster risks, an initiative that the Financial Stability Board (FSB) announced the launch of a task-force to address.

Other work related to financial reform, as well as the formation of the Insurance Development Forum (IDF), have also been key pieces of work that Rowan has been instrumental in developing and delivering.

These initiatives have created global talking points which have helped to promote the important role that risk transfer, be that insurance, reinsurance or structures such as catastrophe bonds, plays in issues related to disaster, climate and sustainable development.

We’re particularly delighted to report on this honour because in the mid to late 1990’s, Rowan led the company that built and launched the very first iteration of the Artemis website in May 1999.

His work in recent years has huge relevance to the capital markets, as the largest providers of liquid, risk capital, and the work he has been honoured for will help to both position insurance and risk transfer as a vital element of global sustainability, as well as create new market growth opportunities in years to come.

Rowan commented; “It was a delightful surprise to receive this honour, but any achievements it may recognise are of course joint adventures with many friends and colleagues from Willis and beyond including of course you Steve.

“Many of the ideas that drove our joint creation of Artemis back in ’99 are now just coming through almost two decades later: we are on the cusp of a global resilience revolution. As world leaders seek tangible solutions and learn from our hard won experience and techniques, re/insurance related capabilities and ILS will lie at the heart of new policy and market landscapes to fill protection gaps in developed and emerging markets.”