BizBahrain April 2016

Interview | Kamal Tabaja
COO Kamal Tabaja, veteran of the
industry is a well-known name in
Bahrain and the region. Beginning his
career as a Systems and Computer
Engineer and a fellow of the Chartered
Insurance Institute (FCII) UK, he has
worked in the Insurance & Reinsurance
industry for well over a decade.
Kamal’s tenure at Trust Re began in
2002 in the Treaty Department and
passing through various, progressively
senior underwriting positions he was
appointed COO in December 2014.
In the comfortable premises of the
Capital Club, Kamal Tabaja talks to
Ahmed Khalfan, CEO and Publisher of
bizbahrain. In the ambience that can
relax even the most stressed executive,
he is full of praise for the little luxuries
the Club has to offer.
“It’s a good environment to sit down
and have a business related discussion
while also enjoying the time… it has very
good value. I have other memberships
but there is a big difference when it
comes to the Capital Club.”
Talking about the company that he
joined almost fifteen years ago Kamal
says, “We take pride that Trust Re was
established in Bahrain in 1989. Bahrain
is one of the leading markets when it
comes to Insurance and Reinsurance
and is a pioneer in the GCC region.
Trust Re is privately owned by Nest
Investments, which is owned by the
AbuNahl family, who are specialists
in the business. We, as well as our
partners value that, because we have a
family that understands the business.
They are not only a capital provider but
they have a passion for the business
and want to develop it. Our vision is to
become the reinsurer of choice not only
in this region, but globally.”
How are you positioning the company to
take advantage of opportunities?
As with any financial company, or
even any business or industry that we
operate in, there are factors that any
company has to examine to actually
reach the intended vision and goals.
The first factor to keep in mind is that
we are a financial company, so we need
Bahrain is one
of the leading
markets, when
it comes to
insurance and
reinsurance, and
is a pioneer in the
GCC region.
to ensure financial security for our
clients. They need to believe that we
are able to pay their claims and to carry
the liabilities we have on our balance
sheets. They need to be sure that we
are going to honour our commitments,
not just now, but also in the future since
we are in the business of continuity.
Insurance is not an opportunistic
business; it is a business driven by
relationships, by trust and by client
service.
When I joined the Trust Re in 2002
we had a capital of USD15 million and
today we have a capital of USD200
million. S&P and A.M. Best, two top
rating agencies in the global economy
have rated us A- in terms of issue credit
rating and in terms of financial security
we are A++ rated. This is the highest
rating that they could give us for our
ability to honour our liability.
We have invested a lot in human
capital which is very important for the
future. A lot of companies have financial
security, but only some of them have
the proper human capital to provide the
client with the service and solutions
in a sustained long term evolution;
your competitive advantage is indeed
bench marked against human capital.
2002 is when we started investing in
the younger generation; if you look
at our current Executives and Senior
Management, most of them are young
and started in the company over the
past 15 years and are growing with the
company.
Trust Re invests heavily in
training; partly through BIBF (which
has contributed a lot to the insurance
industry in Bahrain), training abroad
with other industry partners, specialty
and leadership management, as well
creativity and innovation workshops.
We provide exposure to our trainees
through travel adapting to culture in
China or Africa or to the CIS countries
like Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan,
Kazakhstan, and so on.
The combination provides us with a
competent workforce that is able to look
at things from a different perspective -
not only from a Middle East perspective.
When they see a risk they are able to
say, “hold on a second, we dealt with this
type of business in Kazakhstan albeit
in a different way… maybe we can apply
it here.” In insurance you can exchange
these types of solutions in different
regions and in different countries.
Internally if you compare us to
our peers in the market, we face less
challenges since we have very good
human capital and proper succession
planning in the organization. We are
not overly concerned in terms of losing
expertise or people as we have dynamic
sustainability and flexibility. If we look
at what our real challenges are now; it is
the social economic environment that
we are currently operating in.
Trust Re is a large energy
underwriter which focuses on the oil
& gas and power industry. A part of
that has been affected but we still have
a good and fixated market share. We
started diversification 3 or 4 years back
and that has put us in a good position;
we have grown horizontally. We started
other lines of business, entered new
territories all of which gives us a bigger
landscape to source business and to
lower the effect of underperforming
segments or territories on the overall
company performance.
What are your comments in terms of
regulatory compliance, geographical
reach and risk management of your
organization?
The reason why Trust Re was set up
in Bahrain is because of its regulatory
compliance. We still believe Bahrain
has one of the best regulators in the
May 2016
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