Maria Baez Bano: Trustee of the month
Maria Baez Bano is an Actuarial Data Engineer with Mulberry Risk. Her strong London Market connections link the Insurance Museum’s Board of Trustees to the zeitgeist of young people in insurance. We asked her why she got involved:
Q: What’s exciting in insurance history?
A: What I find the most exciting is the depth and breadth insurance has within its history. There’s little in the commercial past that has taken place without having some sort of link to insurance – sometimes in the most unexpected ways.
Q: What attracted you to the idea of The Insurance Museum?
A: I was attracted most by how many people’s stories we can tell. I am a big fan of learning about others’ experiences. The Insurance Museum has potential to uncover and shine a spotlight on so much history, and many peoples’ lives.
Q: Won’t children and younger people be bored by a lot of talk about insurance?
A: Not at all! Insurance encompasses everything from football to rockets, science to people. It has something to suit everyone’s interests.
Q: What benefit will The Insurance Museum have for the insurance industry?
A: The insurance market sometimes has an unfortunate reputation of being boring, and maybe even not easily accessible. The Museum has the potential to open doors and pique the interest of talented young people, attracting much needed and highly valued skills into the future of insurance. This will only benefit everyone!
Q: What’s your background and your day job?
A: I’m an actuarial data engineer at Mulberry Risk. We’re a team of talented people from a wide variety of backgrounds that works towards creating innovative solutions with technology. I studied physics at university, and have been working with Reg Brown and the insurance market in some shape or form since I was 18.
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Trustees look North to Stephen & Veronica Wilkinson
It’s a great pleasure for the Insurance Museum’s Board of Trustees to welcome a new member, the Yorkshireman Stephen Wilkinson FCII FPFS FCSI. He and his wife, Veronica, have been stalwart supporters of the Insurance Museum from its outset, joining as members of the Steering Group. Both have made enormous contributions of ideas, energy, and reach.
Stephen is a Chartered & Certified Financial Planner whose career spans insurance claims, underwriting, broking, and financial planning. He is an active volunteer for the Yorkshire region of the Personal Finance Society, and Life Vice-President and Secretary of the Insurance Institute of York.
Veronica Wilkinson is an equally well-known and respected insurance professional, working alongside Stephen as a Director of Charles Wilkinson Financial Planning, the business started by Stephen’s grandfather in 1947. Unfortunately, Charities Commission regulations prevent two individuals serving as a single trustee, but we view Stephen and Veronica that way. They even have a joint LinkedIn profile! “We have worked together for 51 years,” Stephen says, “and been married for 46, so we are definitely a team of two!”
Their base outside London and their enormous network in the North make Stephen and Veronica an invaluable asset to the Insurance Museum and the Board of Trustees. They will continue to ensure that the Insurance Museum is for all the UK and the world, not just for London.
