Greater Brighton and Hove Area
Digital technology specialist, web, publishing, events entrepreneur, insurance, reinsurance, ILS, cat bond expert, over 25 years’ experience. Joined risk & reinsurance focused internet start-up in mid-1990's. Created & launched web services for global risk, reinsurance & catastrophe bond & ILS community, including launch of Artemis.bm in 1999. Start-up was bought by Willis Group, one of the largest insurance and reinsurance brokers, at which I spent a few years working on technology, analytics & innovation. Moved on to gain consumer web & digital design experience, leading e-commerce & online operations with Virgin Group travel units, working on initiatives with Virgin Atlantic & managing web related activities in major systems change projects. Then led UI and front-end development for Lastminute.com globally, again involved in major technology systems change, UX and design. Followed with work as digital, UX and ecommerce consultant, with a focus on e-commerce & travel technology, as well as financial services. Focused on replacement of legacy systems, integration of systems into websites, user experience & product design. Relaunched Artemis.bm in 2008, adding news and analysis. Artemis.bm is now a leading online publishing, content & events business of which I am sole owner. Artemis.bm is focused on reinsurance convergence, where reinsurance and capital markets collide. Artemis.bm has a global audience of around 60,000 readers a month. I have been tracking catastrophe bonds, insurance-linked securities and the reinsurance markets since 1990's, on Artemis.bm since 1999. Also own www.reinsurancene.ws which now has over 115,000 individual readers every single month. I am also involved in a number of start-ups in the reinsurance, ILS and risk transfer space in advisory capacities. I continue to advise a number of online travel startups as well. Increasingly I am advising InsurTech (insurance technology) initiatives, given my experience in the sector.
Artemis.bm is the longest running online publication devoted to the convergence of reinsurance and capital markets. Covering alternative reinsurance capital, catastrophe bond, insurance-linked securities, non-traditional reinsurance, ART and weather risk markets. Now 20 years old Artemis.bm (launched early 1999) is solely owned by Steve Evans. As a publication in the reinsurance sector, Artemis.bm strives to be the leading website on the niche topics it covers, aiming for authoritative, timely content on topics that matter to its incredibly focused audience. Providing information, news, analysis and a hub to connect with peers and customers Artemis.bm is accessed widely by industry participants, their potential clients and interested parties. Artemis.bm is perhaps the largest and most dedicated niche reinsurance industry audience in the world, with on average 60,000 monthly readers and is the largest audience in the ILS and cat bond space by a considerable margin. As owner of Artemis.bm and having developed it from its birth in 1999 into an industry leading publication, I manage the day to day running, editorial, drive strategy, arrange much of its marketing and PR, liaise with advertisers and continue to write much of its content and editorial. Artemis.bm is supported by advertising revenue, content partnerships and increasingly private events & conferences. It offers partners a unique opportunity to target the largest highly relevant, focused and industry specific audience of 60,000 readers per month. An audience you cannot find anywhere else on the internet or offline.
Daily reinsurance industry news, insight and analysis, with articles published on our website platform with a readership of over 150,000 each month and daily email briefings sent to a global subscriber base of 13,500+ (at Apr 2020). The largest pure reinsurance/specialty/commercial focused audience anywhere. Striving to provide relevant, no-nonsense reinsurance, specialty, commercial & wholesale insurance market insight, analysis and news.
This is my limited holding company, which Artemis and ReinsuranceNe.ws both sit under currently and through which I provide a number of consultancy and advisory type services. Currently I am focused on Artemis, ReinsuranceNe.ws and advisory roles in ILS, reinsurance and insurtech or fintech. In the past I have also provided consultancy services such as: Web, internet, e-commerce consultancy: Focused on user experience driven results with a keen eye on generating real business value with strategic advice, insight and guidance. Through my work in this area I aim to help my clients create user experiences that deliver their business goals rather than simply delivering requirements with no thought for customers. Have worked on technology integration projects, web builds, replacement of legacy systems, abstraction of legacy systems by adding modern API's, full stack strategic technology selection and delivery. Also advise and consult on SEO, UX/UI, product design and development, management of suppliers. Online travel consultancy: A specialist in helping businesses who are already online, want to get online, or have issues they need to resolve. Often involving reservation systems, booking path UX and search and getting to a UI which abstracts the clunky legacy technology from the customer, enabling them to search, research and book travel products online simply and easily. Deep knowledge of online travel user experience and legacy travel reservation systems, Global Distribution Systems (GDS') alongside some of the most modern travel and tour operator technologies available Insurance linked securities (ILS), catastrophe bond & reinsurance consultancy: With my extensive knowledge of the niche area of reinsurance where the capital markets intersect it, I regularly work with clients to help them develop strategies, design transactions, facilitate partnerships, understand investment opportunities and launch new businesses.
Leading all user interface (UI) and front end development strategy and activities for Lastminute.com and subsidiaries around the globe. Acted as the Product Manager for the user interface of the Lastminute.com, Travelocity.co.uk and Zuji websites, with responsibility for conversion, customer satisfaction, development goals. Responsibility for prioritising work, hiring and managing development teams, ensuring all developments were UX friendly and developed to best practice web standards. Assisted and mentored vertical product managers with development of strategies and UX for selling their particular vertical online. As business owner of the UI, played a pivotal role in all conversion rate optimisation initiatives. Utilised my years of experience in online marketing and social media to advise business areas on best practice. Achievements: - Delivery of a new UI for the Lastminute.com homepage which increased conversion rate significantly. - Delivery of a total website rebranding exercise, including many UX tweaks to improve conversion rates. - Delivery of new booking path UI's for flights, theatres, spa's, hotels, dynamic packaging, holidays etc. - Managed technical improvements programme for the Lastminute.com UI framework (Frontier/Zope, Python based UI framework). - Worked with stakeholders around the business to translate business priorities into usable, high-converting user interface. - Worked on cross functional projects as presentative of the front-end of the website (UI/UX). - Worked with U.S. globalisation teams from Sabre and Travelocity on projects to converge technologies, reservation and dynamic packaging platforms across the business. - Managed large, geographically diverse development team with direct reports in the UK, Italy, Spain, France, India, Argentina, Singapore. - Worked with other product vertical teams to enable delivery of new product specific back-end technologies through the UI.
Leading all matters technical, development, user experience and user interface for the Virgin Holidays ecommerce websites. Providing strategy and input to all online marketing channels and responsible for the technology, UX, strategic direction, design, development and day-to-day operations of the travel companies’ websites. Helped to define a strategy which enabling rapid growth of incremental online bookings all at under target CPA's. Achievements: - Delivered new websites, new functionality, new booking paths, UX and new online marketing strategies. - Delivered technical enhancements to the web platform stack, selecting technologies and arranging implementation. - The reservation system expert for e-commerce. - Instrumental in selection and implementation of new dynamic packaging technology. - Delivered web and e-commerce aspects of integration of new dynamic packaging solutions. - Delivered new content management functionality. - Delivered new merchandising functionality, including smart web merchandising tools. - Worked with marketing department to help them deliver an effective email marketing campaign. - Introduced marketing and PR department to the idea of social media and how to engage with customers and prospects. - Worked with Virgin Atlantic to manage delivery of hotel booking functionality on Virgin Atlantic website. - Delivered online strategy for selling travel: hotel only, flight only, packages, dynamic packages, tours, car hire, activities and extras. - Defined online UX/UI for all online travel booking paths with external agencies. - Managed large development budgets (£1m+ per year). - Managed multiple agency relationships. - Managed team of content, design and technical experts. - Extensive experience of Anite ATOP, Galileo flight GDS and Codegen TravelBox. In my time at Virgin Holidays the online conversion rate rose over 100%, traffic rose more than 50% and cost per acquisition was down.