MM Meets Guardian Financial Services CEO Katya MacLean

When I meet Guardian Financial Services chief executive Katya MacLean on Hampstead Heath, she is beaming as she revels in the bright winter sun. It is a pleasant, crisp morning with a glorious blue sky — fortuitous weather for an outdoor interview.

The picturesque park is teeming with joggers, parents with prams, elderly couples walking their dogs, and sauntering tourists. Instead of sitting on a bench for the interview, we decide to walk and talk.

As we chat, it is clear why MacLean leads the protection challenger. She is an excellent communicator and is great at making one feel at ease.

I keep putting my challenge to the rest of the industry: ‘I love our unique selling points, but there are some you really should be copying’

We discuss the start of her career. There is a sparkle in her eyes as she recalls her further education in Edinburgh, Scotland, where she grew up. She attended the University of St Andrews where she graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics and theoretical physics. She later trained as an actuary at the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries in London.

MacLean then joined Lloyds Banking Group in 2008 as an actuary, rising to head of protection. As a mathematician and problem solver, she loved big challenges. In 2014 one such challenge came her way when she was asked to set up an international business within Swiss Re in Zurich.

“It was very exciting to be building something from scratch with just a piece of paper and a strategy. And doing it in multiple countries across Europe — that was a real stretch and real growth for me,” says MacLean.

After building a team in London and Zurich for Swiss Re’s white-label insurance company, IptiQ, she returned to London for another fresh challenge.

There are some regulatory challenges about making sure customer outcomes are good

“When I came back, I caught up with lots of people to find out what was going on in the market. What had changed since I’d left, and was anybody doing something new and interesting?”

MacLean continues: “I happened to catch up with people I had known from a previous role who were setting up a brand-new company, which eventually turned into the Guardian business.

“I joined them to build something completely fresh. And here we are today, six years later, with the business flourishing in the market.

“We’ve taken it from 14 people when I joined to over 140 and growing. It has been an absolute privilege to bring people in, build the culture and create something that feels very different from the rest of the industry.

“It is something that’s commented on when people come into our offices.”

Visionary leader

MacLean developed a reputation as a visionary leader and manager. Those attributes stood her in good stead when, in 2019, the company was looking for a new CEO. The incumbent had taken an extended sabbatical for personal reasons. At the time, MacLean was chief operating officer.

Since taking the helm, MacLean has made Guardian a contender in the protection sector and won several awards in the process. She says Guardian products are innovative; born of a desire to fix customer problems.

Are you disadvantaging certain groups of customers without even knowing it?

“We built the business in the first place because we had a group of very experienced life insurance industry professionals who had been frustrated in their previous roles by not being able to fix the problems they could see.

“We came into it with a host of ideas that everyone had had for a while but had never actually been implemented, or the challenges hadn’t been worked out on how to solve them.”

Thinking differently

She adds: “We were all about solving customer problems by thinking about things in a different way. And there’s a lot in our product development that is technically complicated but appears simple to the customer because that’s what’s important.

“So, things like our critical-illness [CI] definitions: we thought about all of them very carefully and ended up at a point where we said, ‘We’ll pay out if your doctor says you’ve been diagnosed with this condition.’

It has been an absolute privilege to bring people in, build the culture and create something that feels very different

“We’re not going to say, ‘The insurance company believes you have had a heart attack.’ That’s not relevant. What matters is, does your doctor think you’ve had a heart attack? So that’s kind of the core of the definition: when does it pay out? That’s what matters.

“We then took that into lots of product features and thought about each one very specifically.”

MacLean says Guardian’s trailblazing cover upgrade promise is a game changer for existing customers with a CI policy. It gives them access to the same conditions a new customer has.

This means, when Guardian improves its CI definitions, the improvements will apply to existing customers’ policies, completely free.

You get inclusion and diversity by asking individuals what they know and feel, rather than providing answers

MacLean adds it is the right thing to do and matches what happens in every other industry.

“There’s been lots of fuss about this, but it hasn’t been copied. And that really puzzles me because it’s clearly do-able. We’ve done it.

“I keep putting my challenge to the rest of the industry: ‘Of course, I love that we have unique selling points, but there are some of them you really should be copying.’”

According to comparison service CI Expert, 14 CI providers have updated their policy definitions since 2018 without upgrading existing customers’ cover.

Gender empowerment and diversity

MacLean is a strong advocate for gender empowerment and diversity. She says Guardian has made progress as an inclusive working environment.

“We’re probably in a slightly different position from most companies in that we have a fairly balanced and diverse executive team.

[My mentor] helped me at an early age to understand how you make progress when you don’t have all the information

“I feel diversity is not about just gender; it’s about all types of diversity. It’s about groups that have traditionally been disadvantaged in many ways, often invisible ways, and working out how those can be addressed.

“We’ve spent a lot of time inviting people to tell their story because you get inclusion and diversity by asking individuals what they know and feel, rather than providing answers. And this is how we make a difference.

“We’ve had some really powerful stories across a range of types of diversity. The question then is: how do you feed that into your product development? And this is where it gets interesting.

It was very exciting to be building something from scratch with just a piece of paper and a strategy

“It’s important for your staff but also important for your customers. Are you disadvantaging certain groups of customers without even knowing it? How do you think about that in your product development? How do you test that your products behave well?

“And that’s something we’re really focused on as well.”

MacLean is a mother of two and a keen jogger, particularly fond of long-distance running. In fact, the spot we stand in is her training ground.

When I ask if she is training for a marathon, she chooses to be precise.

“It’s a half-marathon. I like to get out and exercise outdoors, whether that’s running or taking exercise classes here on the heath. There are some really nice classes that run here.”

London life

Besides sport, MacLean says theatre is the love of her life and what attracts her to the city.

“Living in London is fantastic due to the amount of theatre available. It’s something I absolutely love about living here; even during lockdown in those little moments when you could go, fully masked up, and sit with empty seats between you.

“I’m always the first person to say, ‘Yes, let’s get some tickets. Let’s go.’”

The last play she saw was Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet at the Royal Opera House in London’s Covent Garden. She says it was a beautiful production.

 It’s not all about education. Some of it is about networking, expectations, assumptions – things a mentor can absolutely help with

The theatre isn’t her only passion, however. MacLean describes herself as a bit of a geek, who loves science.

“I’m quite interested in scientific developments. And, particularly, extreme space exploration. This is something I’ve really been interested in as a secondary hobby.

“My son always buys me sci-fi books for Christmas and birthdays because he knows that is something I enjoy.

“He gave me a fantastic book at Christmas, which I read, and I then went out immediately and bought all the other books in the series and read them as well.”

Mentoring role

When MacLean was in her late 20s, she had a boss who acted as a mentor and taught her about dealing with situations where she didn’t know the answer.

“I come from a mathematical background where there’s always a correct answer [to a problem]. And then you go into the world of business and dealing with people, where you sometimes don’t get the ‘right’ answer.

People haven’t quite settled down into what this new world is going to look like. And that’s bringing a lot of disruption to the market

“[My mentor] helped me at an early age to understand how you make progress when you don’t have all the information. And I still really value that today. It’s something I like to help other people with as well.”

MacLean is also ‘giving back’ and has worked as a trustee for a charity in London that provides mentoring for female refugees. She says she had a great time learning about the multiple challenges people had and how they overcame them.

“People from challenging backgrounds do very well in their education.

“But you can see it’s not all about the education. Some of it is about networking, expectations, assumptions and those kinds of thing a mentor can absolutely help with.”

Market outlook

I ask MacLean to give her predictions for 2022 in the light of Guardian’s successes. She laughs.

“I wish I had a crystal ball but when you find it let me know.”

She thinks it could be a challenging year for the life insurance market.

“People haven’t quite settled down into what this new world is going to look like. And that’s bringing a lot of disruption to the market.

We were all about solving customer problems by thinking about things in a different way

“But my guess is, things will settle down. I think we will see more around income protection.

“Whether we see big strides in making it fundamentally different and better for customers is down to all of us who are active in the market, to make that happen.

“And clearly there are some regulatory challenges about making sure customer outcomes are good.”

By the time we finish our interview, the sun has disappeared. The sky is grey and the heath somewhat deserted.

But I doubt MacLean’s spirit and love of a challenge will be dampened anytime soon.

This article featured in the March 2022 edition of MM.

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