Sverre Bjerkeli
Value investors are always on the lookout for an enterprise that can combine investing prowess with successful insurance underwriting (and float) to create extraordinary wealth over the long term. The closest current claimant to the title may be Protector Forsikring, based in Norway and founded by its CEO Sverre Bjerkeli.
Over the past 15 years, Mr. Bjerkeli has established Protector Forsikring as the cost and quality leader in the Nordic non-life brokered market, while maintaining strict underwriting discipline and growing premium volume by over 20 percent annualized for a decade. Since its 2014 decision to bring investment operations in-house under a small team, Protector has also invested a large part of its book value in a concentrated portfolio of equities—with excellent results.
At the 2019 Forum, Mr. Bjerkeli will discuss his background as an entrepreneur and executive, his reputation as an Outsider CEO, and the crucial importance of culture—whether adopting constant technology improvements or navigating the tragic Grenfell Tower fire as underwriter to the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea—to applying the “Berkshire mousetrap” in the Nordic countries and beyond.