A message from Nathan Sewell

In 2007 I made the decision (with a little help from my then current employer!) to leave the big corporate world that I had enjoyed for the previous 18 years and to set up Protean Risk. In January 2008 I was joined by my best friend and now business partner, Jason Edwards and we set out to launch "The First and Only Insurance to Protect Investors In Hedge Funds Against Fraud" - I am sure a lot of people know how that ended up! There were many times that we doubted the wisdom of what we were doing and things were genuinely very difficult for some years. Undeterred, we eventually evolved Protean into a specialist FI broker, focused primarily on the SME Sector. We moved to the City office at 1 Gracechurch in 2013, with enough space for 12 or so colleagues but with only four of us on the team. When we left that office a few years later, I didn't even have a desk, albeit things rapidly improved after the move to 81 Gracechurch.

That office has seen Protean achieve around 300% growth in revenue and staff and the business now place something around £40m gross written premium. We took the decision to sell the business to Aston Lark in late 2019 but to retain the independence of the business. AL have supported us fantastically since that time and the proof is in the amazing team that now looks after over 2000 clients and of course in the performance of the business. Shortly after the sale in 2020, I became Non-Exec Chairman and I have really enjoyed staying involved in the business in this capacity.

But all good things must come to an end and sadly this is the time for me to say goodbye. Protean really has been a fantastic journey and it has been a privilege to work with so many quality people. Good luck to you all, as you enter the next phase.

Kind Regards
Nat