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GRS New York's star striker is 'Recruiter International's' professional of the month
There aren’t many businessmen with easily recognised nicknames. Richard Branson was occasionally called the “Grinning Sweater” during the eighties and the man who nursed Royal Mail back to financial health sometimes goes by the name of Allan “Doctor” Leigthon. In the world of international insurance there are even fewer, so those who have acquired a professional moniker tend to stand out from the crowd. Six foot five Morten Kramer – known in insurance industry circles from Bermuda to Brazil as “The Viking” - is definitely such a man.
Until a few years ago Kramer was probably more famous in insurance circles as the scion of insurance legend Donald Kramer. Kramer Senior has had a distinguished history in the reinsurance business, in particular with start up reinsurers. A charismatic leader, his success in the industry is a model of what is achievable with hard work, solid ethics and investment in people. Today, he is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Ariel Re, a global insurance and reinsurance business, providing security for policy holders and building value for shareholders – which he founded in 2005.
With an excellent pedigree in insurance, Kramer senior was recently able to raise $1.2bn to finance a company within 24 hours of deciding to do so – over a weekend! Prior to Ariel Re (which now has the best combined loss ratio in Bermuda), he held the post of Executive, Office of the President and Chief Executive Officer at ACE Ltd, following his retirement from the board of directors in 2004 as Vice Chairman. He had been Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Tempest Reinsurance Ltd., a company he founded in 1992, at the time of its acquisition by ACE in 1996.
Morten Kramer followed his father into insurance. Having earned his MBA at New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School, Morten became a financial analyst before leaving for an eight year stint at IBM. He left in 1997 to start up a new company with five friends, building a speciality lending company into an eighty staff operation with a $1.2bn portfolio. He ran the underwriting operations and personally underwrote over $550 million of loans. And in 2001 he and the other founders sold out to Citigroup. Kramer could have stopped there; but says this chilled lifestyle of sky-diving and golf was not for him.
Despite a passion for scuba diving (he has over 22 diving licences and says he is particularly fond of night diving) a life of leisure didn’t suit him. He joined Bentley & Farrell, a retained executive search firm with offices in New York and Connecticut, as their CFO. It was here that he first turned his hand to recruitment: honing his skills in search while doing the accounts payable, the accounts receivable and the tax allocations all at the same time. And hone his skills he did. Kramer billed $1 million dollars in his first year and built up a big insurance practice single handed. With a list of contacts built from years of Bermudian family insurance parties, Kramer had access to insurance’s biggest power brokers. Once he started making calls, he says he didn’t find it too difficult to get through to the right people. And he has definitely found his niche. “Once you find a job you love, you’ll never work again.” Kramer says the secret to his search success is his love of doing deals.
He clearly relishes the rush and pressure closing the deal generates. “At work I’m never comfortable - never satisfied.” His ambition is clear. Despite only having been as GRS for 9 months, he has already been put in charge of the global insurance arm and is focusing on doing more searches in Latin America along side those he already carries out in the US. So despite being fluent in Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, and German, Kramer is currently trying to master Spanish too. GRS are clearly pleased with their new star striker and Kramer seems to like the down to earth atmosphere and the straight talking Scottish CEO Ken Brotherston.
But how does executive search compare to a 12 year career in underwriting? “Recruiting is a funny business. You don’t manufacture anything, you take one guy from one side to another. The secret is to know the industry. Your contacts will get you in the door, but you need to know what you’re talking about when you’re sitting in front of the CEO. I’ve been grilled by potential clients before on incredibly arcane, technical aspects of excess liability. These guys need to know you have deep industry knowledge. You’d better have done your due diligence too, and know the culture in all the firms you are dealing with - you have to know where the sweat-shops are. But it really comes down to one thing. Clients want to see relevant candidates. Their time is short – never waste it.”
