Delta Spotlight - Stephen Carey, Founder & Director

Delta Insurance’s first hire for its newly established Australian office, Steve Carey, says the company had been on his radar for many years prior to taking up the role last September.

“I’d known [Delta co-founder] Craig Kirk personally for years since first working with him in the UK when I started my career in insurance. After I moved to Australia, I was excited about the new underwriting agency that he and Ian [co-founder Ian Pollard] set up in New Zealand and why. I watched Delta’s success and the great feedback from the market on their products and service proposition – and I was attracted to that breadth of offering and innovation which kept getting bigger and bigger.

“Outside of that, the culture of Delta that Ian and Craig established – that real sense of ‘family’ – and their commitment to environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives really resonated with me. I’m a parent of two primary age girls and the family-orientation to the culture appealed. So, I was thrilled when the opportunity arose to set up a Delta office in Australia.”

Steve says the journey since he agreed to lead the establishment of Delta’s first foothold in Australia has been challenging. “There’s been a lot of hard work to build the foundations of an insurance business in Australia – it was more complex than I initially thought, with a lot of different hats to wear. But in working through those challenges, I really saw the Delta culture in practice - the support and assistance I got from the kiwi team was fantastic.”

The response to the new venture in Australia was also hugely encouraging, says Steve. “I was surprised at the existing strength of the Delta brand, the awareness of it, and subsequent strong interest in what we could offer in Australia, which came through brokers having operations on both sides of the ditch. That really opened doors for us.

“Delta’s strong service proposition and its reputation for helping brokers grow their business – that was very highly regarded.”

Steve says the appointment of Tesh Patel earlier this year as Delta General Manager in Australia was an important step in building the company’s Australian leadership team to meet the market response. “Tesh brings a wealth of experience from senior leadership roles across Australia, Asia and the UK and the team are very excited to have him on board to help us build Delta’s Australian business into a speciality market leader.”

Looking forward, post-launch, Steve says the day-to-day focus is on building relationships with brokers and ramping up trading. The team has celebrated getting its first policy across the board and will be progressively introducing new products to the market through 2022, as well as growing the team. “And we’ll be aiming to celebrate every milestone,” he says. “That’s something that can get lost in the fast-paced business world, but I love that Delta does stop and celebrate achievements, as one of their values – that sense of enjoying and celebrating the journey.”

He's keen to see Delta’s brand and people participating strongly in industry events throughout the year and, later in the year, begin to develop a thought-leadership profile. “I’m also keen that we build on the impressive work Ian and the team have done around ESG initiatives in New Zealand.”

In that respect, don’t be surprised if you see Steve donning a costume and mounting a cycle in some form of charitable pursuit in the future. A keen long-distance runner, he’s appeared in fundraisers as a truck, a colourful monster and a banana to raise money for causes like food poverty and children’s mental health – causes he’s keen to engage Delta in too. Knowing the passion for fitness among some members of the New Zealand management team he’s also expecting a bit of trans-Tasman rivalry in that space. “I don’t think a triathlon challenge will be far off.”