Former Hiscox CEO Masojada Becomes Lord Mayor of London

Bronek Masojada had a reputation as a tough leader in the insurance world he worked in for three decades. He’s now planning to bring that same rigor to his role as Lord Mayor of the City of London in a push to boost the UK’s competitiveness — and put its trillions of pension savings to work.

Masojada becomes Lord Mayor as the UK government is searching for ways to boost economic growth, a key goal of Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s agenda. While the Lord Mayor’s one-year role is largely ceremonial, he can draw on his experience of running insurer Hiscox Ltd. for 21 years until 2021 to lobby for the City.

His appointment comes as many see financial services firms – many of which sit steps away from the historic Mansion House where he’s based — playing a key role in the UK’s global standing. Masojada plans to project the message that the UK is the “land of opportunity.”

Getting pensions investing in private assets is one priority, an effort that’s been on Lord Mayors’ agendas previously. But progress has been slow. He’ll have to get buy-in from executives responsible for their own company pension plans and from those overseeing the funds. He’s ready to confront resistance.

“I don’t want to hear from them that there is not enough British capital and British opportunities, when they don’t know where their own capital, that they have influence over, is going,” Masojada said in an interview.

He also plans to challenge the argument that pension fund trustees cannot direct funds into British and private assets because of their fiduciary duty to invest wherever they see the best returns.

With the boom in private assets around the world, Masojada’s challenge will be: “Tell me how you are living up to your fiduciary duty by not investing in these assets.”

The role of Lord Mayor — which dates back to the 12th century — is responsible for promoting the UK’s financial services sector globally, and being a civic leader locally. Masojada will be a de facto ambassador for banking, insurance and other financial services in London.

“We need to grow and prosper, because that’s beneficial to the whole country,” Masojada said. The UK’s financial and professional services account for 12% of the country’s tax revenue. The City sees about 700,000 people coming to work there daily, more than before the pandemic and Brexit.

Masojada, 64, joined insurance firm Hiscox in 1993 and became its chief executive in 2000. Under his tenure, Hiscox grew its staff to 3,500 from 200, and its shares rose from about 33 pence to about £8.60 ($11.37) when he stepped down at the end of 2021.

“That’s the value of staying and scaling,” Masojada said. He moved from South Africa to the UK to study as a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford in 1985 and then worked at consultancy McKinsey.

Domestic Opportunities

Masojada knows that it won’t be easy to make significant progress on getting more of the UK’s roughly £3.2 trillion in pension savings directed into startups, including in the UK. Nick Lyons, the Lord Mayor from 2022 to 2023, corralled a group of insurers and asset managers to pledge more in the UK, but some of the country’s insurers and asset managers have been hesitant to make more dramatic changes.

Masojada also thinks the private sector needs to play its part in boosting growth, in addition to government measures such as adding £20 billion to the publicly owned British Business Bank and National Wealth Fund. That runs contrary to some others within the business community.

He also struck a different note from some in the financial world about the government’s budget last month. Chancellor of the Exchequer John Healey’s increase to bank taxes to stirred anger, especially among international banks. Others said the government could have done more to promote growth.

Masojada disagrees. “It was criticized for a no-change budget, but actually I think it was part of its value, that it was a small change budget,” he said. “What businesses value is stability and predictability.”

He’s also facing thorny issues over funding for the City of London and policing. The government’s so-called fair funding reforms are set to channel money from richer areas into more deprived ones, and could mean a big reduction in funds for the City.

If the City can keep more of the tax that businesses pay, “I think that would work very well for us,” he said.

There’s been strong pushback from the City on the government’s plans to reduce police forces nationally, which has created uncertainty about whether the City of London police will stay independent. That could mean its expertise, particularly in prosecuting fraud, is lost, critics of the potential changes argue.

“The City believes there is value in keeping” the police force independent, Masojada said. “We want the Square Mile to be the safest place to be.”

Masojada has been chair for five years of the East End Community Foundation, a charity that tackles inequality in some of London’s most deprived areas. As Lord Mayor, he plans to advocate for young people and disadvantaged communities, and help them obtain better work experience and training opportunities. He also wants to help create better experiences for those applying for jobs in the City, informed in part by the experiences of his five children.

At the moment, he said, it’s too often a “black hole,” with young people not hearing anything from firms.

Masojada’s tough messaging will also be directed to certain aspects of the City’s governing body, including the charity that oversees its bridges. On London Bridge, which Masojada crosses every day, there are still temporary barriers nine years after the 2017 terrorist attacks.

“The City Bridge Foundation should fix that in my view and I have told them,” he said. “Where we have the muscle to do something, I believe we should.”

Photograph: Bronek Masojada at Mansion House in the City of London; photo credit: Jose Sarmento Matos/Bloomberg