10 of our amazing people were recognized by their colleagues for living our SiriusPoint values and were nominated by their colleagues to be on the podium for the New York Stock Exchange bell ringing in August. We are more than just our jobs, and as ‘One SiriusPoint’ it’s important we understand how every person plays a role in helping us to be recognized as a best-in-class insurer and reinsurer. Meet Manish Munshi, Chief Data Officer, who is based in New York.
My role is to manage all things data. In this day and age, data is central to everything we do – whether that’s analyzing business performance; financial reporting; or even looking after our people. Every department needs data, so my job can get pretty busy!
As my career has developed, I’ve moved more to the coordination and leadership side of things – I used to do the hands-on work, but now I support my team to meet our customers’ requirements. A large part of the job is not just supporting requests, but helping people figure out their needs.
I have the privilege of working with every department and with people across the world, which gives me the opportunity to understand a lot of different perspectives and talk to people with different skill sets. My job is to translate the various non-technical conversations into tech speak for my team and align with my peers and leadership on priorities.
Data is a critical asset, and it is important to have a solid foundation. Sometimes we have the tendency to get excited by technology and start dabbling with AI or machine learning, but we need to build a good strong foundation of data first and then we can push the boundaries.
Of all our values, collaboration and solution driven resonate the most with me – although they all inter-relate, and you can’t really achieve any of them without the others. That’s why I like them so much – the logic of having inter-related values speaks to the logical part of my brain.
When I talk about being solution driven and collaborative, those are integral to making sure I’m doing my job well. We need teams to come together globally – driving solutions without collaboration will inadvertently lead to customer dissatisfaction, and collaboration without delivery of solutions will not move us forward and erode confidence in our ability to deliver. Besides, you need collaboration to drive a diversity of ideas and to think outside the box to make things happen.
Finding balance and staying motivated
The best part of my job is the ability for everyone to come together and work together to accomplish our objectives.
Especially in the last eight months or so, seeing the new leadership and their clear vision has really made my job much better. It can be overwhelming at times, but now our efforts are channeled in a clear direction with tangible outcomes. We’ve started seeing some of these opportunities translate into real efforts with meaningful progress – that’s exciting to me and what drives me.
Also important is to find balance, not just for yourself but for your team, and keeping everyone motivated. I see a bright future for SiriusPoint – if we live our values and deliver on the things we’re planning to deliver over the next year, we can find that balance and achieve what we want to. You look at some companies and wish that you would have joined them a few years ago so you could have been part of an exciting and rewarding journey. I believe we are that company, and someone looking at us a few years from now will wish they would have joined us now.
I’m proud of what I do and my journey to get here. I came to the US as a student and worked my way through different roles to be where I am today. Even more importantly, being nominated by my peers and colleagues to represent the company at the ringing of the NYSE closing bell is a feeling that cannot be expressed in words. It wouldn’t have been possible to get to where I am today without the guidance of mentors and exceptional support from my family. I now want to help and mentor others to go through the same journey, and to achieve their full potential.
Switching off for quality time
In my downtime, I like outdoor activities like running and biking, while listening to audiobooks. I try to spend as much time as possible with my family, and really switch off for quality time together. I am not as creative and talented as my wife or daughter, who are great at painting and singing, but I’ve always wanted to learn a musical instrument – perhaps I’ll learn to play the guitar someday!
If I could recommend a book to people which inspired me, it would be the biography of Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. His journey is incredible to read, and the way his ideas paved the way for so many of the tools and technologies we take for granted today is fascinating. Another good read is “Lords of Finance” that discusses the heads of the Central Banks of the US and Europe and their efforts to steer the world economy after the end of the First World War until the Great Depression.