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Adrian Holley celebrates 25 years service with Insurance Corporation
This year we are celebrating a number of long service milestones within the Company. Today we are delighted to recognise and celebrate Adrian’s significant 25 year anniversary of his employment with us. Reaching this milestone is a very special occasion for Adrian and is testimony to his loyalty and dedication to ICCI over the years.
Adrian (known as Ade) joined ICCI on 16 August 1999 as a Personal Lines Underwriter working his way up to be a Technical Claims Executive for one of our largest accounts. We caught up with Ade who reflects over the past 25 years with fond memories...
I hope you don’t mind if I start this piece with a nostalgic trip down memory road to 1999. It wasn’t quite as exciting as Prince predicted in his song but, like most years, it had its highs and lows; from the explosive emergence of Britney Spears to the shocking demise of Jill Dando. From Steven Gerrard enjoying his first full calendar year as a Liverpool first team regular to a boring, flukey treble at the end of May. From the excitement of the official launch of the new Euro currency to Vladimir Putin becoming the new Russian leader.
Anyway, when I look back to the end of 1998, I see it as one time when I stuck rigidly to my NYR, and that was that I needed a new job. I was over half way through my 8th year as a broker and, whilst I was grateful for the education I received in that role, I had grown tired of the relentless front line pressure. The job agency showed me various vacancies at the start of 1999 and, having attended a couple of interviews that I’d describe as little more than ‘going through the motions’, I had a ‘penny drop’ moment – I wanted to work for Insurance Corporation (ICCI).
I had admired the set up from a distance and wanted a closer look. I therefore explained to my agent that I wasn’t looking for a job, I was looking for the right job, and so I had narrowed the field down to ICCI only. The agent explained that there were no vacancies, to which I replied that I would simply wait until one came up. That resulted in a near 6 month long wait for an opportunity to arise, apparently following a rather lively corporate function in France! I got through to a 2nd interview, which to me was a rather daunting invitation to ‘sit on the leather’ with Peter Walpole. I explained to Peter that this wasn’t about money, I wanted to move to ICCI for a better working experience with more opportunities to progress – Peter offered me a job as Personal Lines Underwriter on the same money I was on at my then current employers, and I could hardly complain as he had simply taken me at my word!
I noticed the improvement immediately as the front line pressure that had been grinding me down was no more, there was still plenty of work to do but I felt more freedom to express myself as most of the ICCI business came to us from brokers. ICCI was also true to its word in terms of supporting staff who wanted to progress their careers, which included financial support in attaining professional qualifications, internal & external courses, specialist in-house training on specific types of policies, and working closely with service providers on specific projects and claims.
I could mention so much more but I think you get my gist, which is that ICCI provides a wide range of opportunities to staff to enable them to get to where they want to be in their career. This has been a very consistent theme over the past 25 years, and the proof is round about me everyday as I see the success that various of my colleagues have achieved over the years. So would I recommend ICCI as an employer? Yes absolutely, as the Irish like to say – what’s not to like!
Finally, I’d like to take a look back at a few lighter moments from down the years. The first I remember was Peter Walpole summoning his management team to Dixcart House on Millenium Eve with the brief that they would walk around the floors to check that all was in order in the lead up to midnight, with mulled wine being made available for their troubles – I guess it was just making sure that Nostradamus had got it wrong!
The Harbour Carnival was another summer highlight for ICCI, with the ladies paddle racing team competing with some success. Brigitte Windsor was the captain of the team, and she would lead with the inspirational chant; 'we are the girls from ICCI mess with us and you will die'!
Another HC event I remember was getting roped (pun intended) into the ICCI men’s tug of war team, and this was ToW with a difference as the opposing teams were situated either side of a short wall/water divide, which meant that the losers got a free swim in the harbour! I looked across at our opponents and protested to our team captain, Tristan Boscher, 'how are we supposed to compete against those bunch of tanks?' Tristan replied 'don’t put yourself down Dr Evil, you’ve got a barrel on you'. Needless to say we lost, and I never realised how much marine fuel discharge there was in the harbour!
Very finally is going back to the late noughties, when Pete Jennings performed a classic dance rendition of Madonna’s Vogue, and let me tell you that it’s no exaggeration to say that the crowd were pleading for more! For some reason Pete and I shared a room that year, and we retired a little later than planned after all the dancefloor shapeshifting. Anyway, I thought I was in a bad dream getting heavily beaten in a boxing match, with the referee standing over me and delivering a final count but, as my eyes cleared, I realised it was Pete standing over me saying 'sorry Ade, I couldn’t wake you up so I decided to tip you out of bed so that you don’t miss your flight home'! Me; 'cheers for that Pete, you’ll go a long way'!!
Allan Straker, who has managed Ade for the past 20 years said...
Many congratulations on reaching such an impressive career milestone, it’s been great working with Ade over the years. His loyalty and expertise have been integral to our success, handling complex technical claims and providing sound guidance to colleagues. Thank you Ade for being such a valuable member of our team.
Mark Marshall, Managing Director said
There are not many employee’s who remain with a business for such a long period of time and continue to add so much value. Ade’s technical knowledge is second to none and he’s an incredible asset to both our team and our customers.
Congratulations Ade and thank you from all the team at ICCI for all your hard work and dedication - here’s to many more years with us!