Coffee Break with... Valentine Verrijken - Renewals Lead

When did you join Christie Insurance?
It feels like yesterday. Actually, it was almost exactly two years ago to the day, whilst filling this out. Where has the time gone!

What was your first job?
I cleaned when I was a student for some extra spending money. It was in a hospital my mum used to work for. They were considered very high paying jobs in comparison to other student jobs. After Uni, my first job was a Latin teacher.

In a couple of sentences, can you tell us a bit about your job at Christie Insurance?
I’m the Team Lead for the renewals team. We take care of our existing clients. We try to find what they want and need insurance terms for and then we try to look after that for them as best as we can.

What’s your favourite thing about Christie Insurance?
The colours. This question just reminds me so much of that game you play when you’re young and you meet a new friend and you ask each other about your favourite things. It usually starts with: “what’s your favourite colour”. Mine was always green. It so happens that the shades of Christie Insurance green are actually my favourite colours. I even used the same once for my own logo at one point when I had plans to start a company.

What's a favourite project that you’ve worked on at Christie Insurance so far?
I did a front to back cover review for a client’s acquisition. They needed to know whether the insurance covers for the companies they were buying were fit for purpose. It was a project I could stick my teeth into and we delivered against very tight timings. It was so satisfying to do such hard work with such good result.

What’s been a highlight of your career so far?
Getting the job at Christie Insurance actually. It meant finally feeling recognised again after ten long years of fighting the ceiling.

Who in your industry do you feel most inspired by?
Well David Foster already mentioned Walter, our Managing Director, so I’m off the hook for that one! I had the pleasure of working with Michael Rea, CEO from Gallagher, on some projects in the Inclusion and Diversity space. He really cared about people, and was a great public speaker. 

What’s your hometown? Where do you live now?
My home town is Wilrijk in Belgium. I live in Milton Keynes.

Where’s the best place you’ve been on holiday?
The Daintree Rainforest, just above Cairns on the east coast of Australia.

What’s your biggest pet peeve?
Unfairness in the world on any level. I still can’t get used to the idea that the world isn’t fair. It should be. If I look at what I get annoyed about, it’s probably mostly to do with unfairness.

If you could live and work in any city, where would you go?
Toronto, I think, at least of the places I’ve visited. I don’t like cities, I prefer the outdoors, but I need people around me to survive. I love where I live right now. It’s on the edge of Milton Keynes surrounded by a pony field, but no more than 15-20 minutes away from anything there.

What would be your desert island meal?
Is that some kind of common English phrase? I assume it means what would you want to eat if you were stuck on a desert island? You’ll have to ask me again when I’m hungry. Seafood pasta?

What’s your favourite film?
It used to be Armageddon when I was in my teens, then I switched over to Ice Age and now it’s the Martian.

What is one thing on your bucket list?
I still want to go to Africa. I’ve been lucky to have had quite a fulfilling life so far and have done quite a lot of things, more than most!

What news source do you read every day?
I don’t. I have a specific couple of friends who know I don’t keep up with the news because it would make me really annoyed and sad. They give me the gist when it’s necessary or when I ask for it.

What’s your social media platform of choice?
I don’t like any. They’re sadly necessary. A lot of my hobbies are arranged on Facebook, so I’m there a lot. We should throw them all out of the window…