Interview: Edmund Santiago – Clear-vision planning in the Caribbean

We recently heard your speech at ITIC Americas about disaster preparedness. How difficult is it to be prepared in the Caribbean for natural disasters?

We can never be completely prepared, because every disaster is different in itself. Becoming prepared in such vulnerable areas where the damages sometimes exceed the size of their own economy can be challenging. Preparedness is a unified effort among all institutions working together to carry out awareness campaigns directed to the population about the importance of being ready and covered for unforeseen situations. Preparedness is about learning from past experiences, planning with a clear vision, assessing risks, and knowing exactly what we need to protect. Followed by finding the right balance between risk and cost effective investment, assigning responsibilities, and testing the plan regularly.

What have been the biggest learnings for Redbridge after Hurricane Maria and Covid-19?

Hurricane Maria and Covid-19 were two completely different disasters that presented us with different outcomes and lessons. During Covid-19, technology allowed us to expand the reach of existing services that were in the background, and suddenly became forefront tools covering unimaginable needs of the population no matter their location, such as telemedicine. Travel insurance changed overnight. Most countries required coverage to allow visitors in. We had to improve existing benefits and create new ones to cover situations that were never considered before.

On the other hand, Hurricane Maria opened up the understanding of overlooked complementary insurances, like parametrics, which now have come to the frontline due to its major benefit of putting forth recovery, while major losses are still processed and evaluated through homeowners’ insurance policies. Redbridge’s 25 years of managing experience in the insurance market, and undergoing many natural disasters, have taught us big lessons, but the most important one is the importance of having financial strength which gives us the necessary support to face the challenges and responsibilities to take care of our clients.

How important is it to also have sites away from the islands?

A business can lose millions of dollars in revenue-only on systems downtime. When disaster happens, there is no time to waste. Hosting the IT infrastructure in sites away from the islands as a hot disaster recovery site is extremely important. These sites are an alternative data centre in a remote location that compiles all critical systems with replicated data or frequently backed up to them, and when disaster strikes, all operations can be switched over to the hot site alleviating the impact on maximum amount of data loss (RPO) and maximal time an organisation can sustain recovering normal operations (RTO). We at Redbridge believe in multilayer protection to minimise the risk of data loss. Our infrastructure is hosted in the Cloud with Microsoft Azure, a leader in the security industry, which provides the customer with the assurance their data will be completely protected, thanks to their most sophisticated security measurements. Also, we have ISO 27001 Certification guaranteeing the protection, security, and continue availability of company data.

At ITIC Americas, Redbridge hosted the welcome dinner, with local musicians and food. How important is it as a company that you support local artists?

Social projects have become a very important part of the core values at Redbridge, and it goes beyond supporting and impacting just local communities, but also about communities around the world. This past year, Redbridge decided to create its own social project programs, and T+art (Talent plus art) is just one of them. T+art is an initiative looking to recognise young professional artists. It is disheartening to know that independent projects don’t always have the support of large companies which are able to finance big productions or publicity. For an artist it is very tough to face limitations and reach to share their talent. Redbridge is contributing and using its platform to help for better broadcasting so that more people know their talent and art. At the ITIC Americas welcome reception, we had the opportunity and honour of having with us our first sponsored artists and musicians of T+art: Lourdes Rosales and Naxo Lara, who, with their magical duet interpretations with violin and viola, enchanted all attendees.

What is next for Redbridge?

Our mission is to continue offering the best service and coverage of the insurance market. We are focused on the worldwide positioning of our brand with the re-launch of its new image and tagline: No matter what, Redbridge assures your peace of mind. We will continue moving forward in our approach to technology – insurtech – to facilitate new capabilities and partnerships, as well as enhance distribution of our 360 portfolio of products and services.