Alex Letts, chief executive, RI3K

Alex Letts came into the insurance industry from a background in advertising and e-commerce to establish RI3K, an electronic trading exchange. He had every intention of being out of the industry within three years: by his own admission, he had no love, knowledge or experience of insurance. Eight years later, he is a fervent believer in the importance of the industry to the UK economy and the importance of maintaining its competitive edge. In this regard, he sees RI3K as the most important infrastructure project undertaken in the UK in the financial services sector for 25 years: “If we get this right, it will be the lasting solution for the industry, like rebuilding all the roads in England or like changing the underground system and making it work.”

RI3K has been the sole surviving electronic trading platform in the London insurance and reinsurance market since the highly publicised collapse of Kinnect, a £70.0mn project funded by Lloyd’s of London, at the end of 2005. Another rival platform, inreon, sponsored by Munich Re and Swiss Re, had closed down two years earlier. These closures formed part of a long line of unsuccessful attempts to establish a business-to-business electronic market place for the insurance and reinsurance sectors.