Jarek Klimczak shares the invaluable lessons he’s learned along the way that have given him an understanding of the challenges facing our marine clients.
As a child, I loved reading travel and adventure stories, particularly the novels of Joseph Conrad. Those tales fuelled my imagination and instilled in me the desire to sail the seas. Fulfilling that dream required some hard work, however.
I studied for five years at Maritime University in Poland, gaining a Master of Science Degree. This gave me some fundamental skills and knowledge, which informed my sailing career - although much has changed in recent years.
My childhood ambitions were realised when I became a sailor and, eventually, got my Master Marine licence in 1995. Back then, navigation was considered something of an art since we used sextants – which takes a sight between the horizon and a celestial body - rather than computers.
Being a ship's captain is a big responsibility. The Master of a ship is responsible for the crew and cargo, and for ensuring safe passage through sometimes challenging waters. The Master often needs to make decisions quickly based on limited information due to imminent risk or hazard jeopardising the safety of the ship, crew or cargo.
I loved my time at sea and learned many invaluable lessons about people, resilience, meteorology, various cultures, risk taking and balancing authority and responsibility, which I have been able to apply in my 'second career' as a risk consultant.
Taking lessons ashore
Once back onshore after leaving seafaring in 2005, my experience of dangerous situations and near misses on ship gave me unique insights into risk and loss, enabling me to evaluate claims and help our marine clients. It also gave me great empathy. I found that I was able to communicate with our marine clients in a common language. I understood the way they thought and was able to translate that back to our underwriters, helping them to understand some of the nuances of the marine world.
The Master often needs to make decisions quickly based on limited information due to imminent risk or hazard jeopardizing safety of the ship, crew or cargo.
Life at sea had also given me first-hand experience of maritime law, something that I had studied in my student days, and I was able to adapt both that academic knowledge and practical experience to help clients better understand their potential liabilities.
The future of shipping
A lot changed over the course of my career onboard ship. Technology began to become more prevalent, requiring different types of skills.
Advances continue to change the expertise required onboard ship as well as in our risk consulting, underwriting and claims teams. And risks are changing too. Over the coming years, we are likely to see new alternative fuels and types of propulsion coming to the fore.
The next voyage
Although it was my dream to sail, life at sea doesn't always live up to the romantic ideals. It can be somewhat isolating, for example, and I now very much enjoy being part of a team working to understand, assess and predict the risks our marine clients may face, and helping them mitigate them.
While as a Master I was often required to make decisions swiftly, I now have more time, working in risk consulting, to determine the best solution, using more qualitative information. Collaborating with colleagues, experts and clients is fulfilling and rewarding from a personal standpoint, and enormously powerful when it comes to understanding risk.
As the shipping world continues to evolve, so too will the risks ships encounter. I am pleased to be part of a team that not only enables me to bring my experience and knowledge to the table but also to adapt that expertise and continue to learn.
Helping our clients to boost their resilience to risk and be positioned to take advantage of the opportunities the evolution of the marine world can offer is immensely satisfying.
