In this episode of 'Taking on tomorrow, together', Kait Borsay talks to NorthStandard’s Managing Directors, Jeremy Grose and Paul Jennings.

They discuss the renewal period, recent company achievements, and key global issues affecting the maritime industry. The conversation covers NorthStandard's performance, including claims volatility, geopolitical impacts and future innovations.

Special attention is given to the dual leadership experience of Grose and Jennings, and their focus on maintaining NorthStandard's industry relevance amid changing global conditions.

00:31 Meet the Managing Directors

01:33 Renewal Insights

05:09 Claims and Business Impact

06:45 Global Industry Issues

09:26 Achievements and Innovations

11:23 Future Outlook and Key Focus Areas

18:10 Final Thoughts and Conclusion

[00:00:34] We're also going to take a look ahead to the rest of 2025. To do this, we are once again joined by NorthStandard Managing Directors, Jeremy Gross and Paul Jennings. Welcome to both of you.

[00:00:46] Paul Jennings: Hi Kait, nice to see you again.

[00:00:56] So I gather the relationship is going well. How does that feel?

[00:01:17] Kait Borsay: When you think more broadly, Jeremy, about what's happened in the last year, and also looking ahead as well, what springs to mind?

[00:01:40] Kait Borsay: Okay, let's first look at renewal. How's it looking at this stage, Paul?

[00:01:59] Um, and that's in terms of the number of members that are renewed with us and renewing their, their entries. Um, in terms of, um, gains and losses on, on new people joining and one or two people that might be leaving, that's pretty neutral, I think, so I suspect we'll be, Pretty static in terms of our tonnage overall, but that again is within our generally within our expectations.

[00:02:32] Kait Borsay: Jeremy?

[00:02:57] So, so overall the year's not looking too bad.

[00:03:25] So it's looking good without being overly confident. Against the backdrop, I think, as we, as we said, that, um, it's been a challenging claims

[00:03:33] Paul Jennings: a busy claims year.

[00:03:52] Is this, is this standard procedure when you're both together?

[00:04:08] Kait Borsay: But I suppose if I was going to take a more esoteric look at that, you are both in tune, you know, whether it's talking business or whether it's your sock selection, clearly you are both very much in tune with each other.

[00:04:34] And I think in tune, yeah, I was in tune aligned. I think we're. We are aligned on the, on where we want to take North Stand on the, on the big issues and the big ticket issues.

[00:05:05] We believe that they're making the right decision. It may not be the right, the same decision that we might have taken, but it's the decision that's been taken by us on, on any particular issue.

[00:05:36] Paul Jennings: I think, yeah, I think when we actually, when we spoke, um, last year, uh, we, we just, we just had that really high profile claim for the industry out in Baltimore, the Dali with the Baltimore Bridge. And that was early in, in the, in the previous year. And that kind of, kind of set the tone, I think for, for the industry as a whole.

[00:06:11] And there have been one or two large ones in there. It's difficult to talk about all the details because some of them are still ongoing. But it's, it's certainly kept us busy. And I think, I think also importantly it's kept um, a lot of our teams busy. And probably given, I don't know Jeremy if you have a view on this, but I think it's given our, our teams the opportunity to demonstrate their worth and show, you know, show the value we've got from having this large experienced team

[00:06:52] Kait Borsay: Let's talk more broadly about some of the other challenges within the industry. I know you can't go into specifics, um, but back in May, we certainly mentioned, uh, the Red Sea and instability within the Middle East. Now things have calmed a little there, but we also spoke about the impact of the Russia Ukraine war as well, and that is an ongoing situation.

[00:07:17] Paul Jennings: Yeah, very much so. I think if you go back to I think it was about two weeks before we formally announced the merger to the world at large, Putin decided to invade Ukraine. And that was kind of two weeks before we'd been we'd been saying as part of our prep on this, that actually having greater resource greater ability to deal with with the disruption and the uncertainty of a volatile world was was a real factor in the merger.

[00:08:01] I think is a shipping is the archetypal global industry, isn't it? And has to respond to that. And shipping has, has responded to economic changes, um, and also conflicts over the years, but it's probably at a heightened position now. I think, um, I kind of liken it to historically, it was more through procedure and process and protocols.

[00:08:27] Kait Borsay: Given the challenging claims situation then, Jeremy, just how key are the people working for NorthStandard and the expertise they offer? We've discussed, you know, about them being able to flex their muscles, show and demonstrate to your members what they can do.

[00:09:15] You know, teamwork is, you know, a really important part of, of their success. And we've been very pleased to see that over the course of the last two years, we've seen our engagement levels increase as we've gone through, you know, what is inevitably a certain amount of disruption from bringing North and Standard together.

[00:09:43] Paul Jennings: In terms of, um, progression, we've definitely moved as an organisation now, as a merged company, we've moved from integrating to implementing. And that may not sound very exciting, but it's a big, it's a big movement. It's a big change of, of emphasis, really, that the people are in position and, and, and working to implement now the benefits we've got from, you know, we think of the merger.

[00:10:20] Um, from our members and, and, and others, but also we, we got involved in some partnerships along the way as well, a very exciting, um, offshore wind partnership, um, New York, which we, we launched, um, the, well, it was at the end of last year of January wasn't kicked off 1st of January. So whilst we've been busy kind of implementing, we haven't taken our eye off innovating and developing and looking at new, new products.

[00:10:56] Jeremy Grose: I think that's been a successful year on that, very much so. And never more important, I don't think, for that communication to take place. We've built the team up a little bit. We've had a couple of people join that team. And we've continued to have the communication with governments around the world. A lot of that is with the European Union.

[00:11:30] Kait Borsay: right, let's look ahead now, shall we, to the rest of 2025 and a little beyond that. What are the major issues that you expect? What do you foresee when you think ahead to what might impact shipping over the coming months, Paul?

[00:11:58] Of course, it's not, it's not all bad for shipping perversely. Um, actually shipping. In some of these situations profits from from that. And you know, the cost is actually born by the rest of us by the consumers. But I think I'm looking a bit further than that. The decarbonisation position. I mean, it is and should and will will happen with shipping.

[00:12:36] I think through the technical advice. We have an expertise in house and also the legal advice we have in house and we're helping already to our members to navigate through that journey. But that that's that is a big issue for shipping next year and into the future.

[00:13:20] It's one of those things that, well, they'll have to respond to because the trade will probably continue. It'll just go to different places.

[00:13:42] Paul Jennings: I think it's the US administration's impact is on, from a global economic point of view, the impact on shipping, therefore us as a supplier to shipping. I think we've touched on a number of those areas, whether it's, you said trade tariffs, which you're particularly fond of. That will change trading routes probably a little bit, whether it's short term, long term, who knows, it could all be negotiation tactics with Mr. Trump. We don't really know the outcome of that at the moment, do we? I think the In terms of the conflicts, that's, that would be an interesting one. Sanctions, I think is it, um, I think we can anticipate if things don't go the way of the US administration immediately, then I think we can expect a heavier approach and I think we can expect more sanctions and that will keep us and our team quite busy in, in safeguarding and helping our ship owners navigate through that.

[00:14:34] Jeremy Grose: Well, I think Paul mentioned earlier the, the innovation that has taken place during the course of this year. And while I think 2025 will be about delivering the merger benefits that, that we talked about. When we came together, we want to continue encouraging people within the organisation to innovate, to, to find new ways of, of supporting members, whether that's with the way in which we provide service or, uh, the way in which we, um, the, the products that we provide.

[00:15:08] Kait Borsay: We have previously discussed AI briefly and how that's affected the industry and what you do on your various platforms. Just expand on that for us.

[00:15:39] And, um, What we're trying at the moment is a way in which the AI will go through all of the information that we have, produce an answer, which is then checked by a human being before it's actually sent to make sure it's in line with what we want to say. But, um, you know, it saves a huge amount of time for that individual to be able to respond.

[00:16:03] Kait Borsay: and Paul, What else of the objectives, the original objectives of the merger and those that you've added along the way, what else of those have to be implemented or developed further?

[00:16:39] So I think, I think that really should be our focus as we go forward. Not in any way being complacent. I think, um, you know, the question we often ask is what keeps you awake at night and complacency, the fear of complacency, the fear of saying, you know, we're bigger now, we've got 20 percent of the world's shipping entered with us or insurers with us.

[00:17:08] Kait Borsay: One for you briefly on alternative fuels, Jeremy, if I can, what is NorthStandard doing in that area?

[00:17:36] Uh, we need to make sure that we can, we try to encourage a situation in which governments understand that, that it's helpful to have a sensible liability regime that deals with, uh, the unexpected. So that we don't end up having a long, drawn out discussion and debate between lawyers about who has to pay for what.

[00:18:17] Kait Borsay: Well, it's been great to hear from you both in detail. Let's round this up then with a final thought from each of you, Paul,

[00:18:43] And it's just. Incredibly exciting to look forward to, you know, what we can achieve now in the future.

[00:18:49] Jeremy Grose: Very much the same sort of thing. I just like a slightly quieter year from a claims perspective in 2025.

[00:19:13] That's all for this episode of the Taking on Tomorrow Together podcast series. You can find more episodes of Alongside on your podcast player. I'm Kait Borsay, and thanks for listening.