Tell us about your career, about how it all began.

In the late 1970s it was not unheard of for students to support themselves financially, as the circumstances in Spain were complicated. In a coastal town like Vigo for example there was plenty of work in the harbour, unloading vessels or overseeing commodities in warehouses and deposits.

I was one of those students. I cut my teeth in the world of work at the Vigo Harbour [Puerto de Vigo], juggling studies and work until I earned my certificate as a commercial graduate.

I later joined the accounting team of an agency finally ending up in their insurance department. The general manager was an agent who represented an insurance company called Andalucia y Fénix Agrícola (Grupo Equitativa).

In 1983 I severed my ties with them and set up on my own as an independent insurance agent.

How have things evolved since then? What happened next?

In March 1986 I was a founding member of insurance broker Campos y Rial, with a head office in the city of Vigo. I was Chairman of the Board and technical director, charged with leading the Corporate Risk department. I left that role twelve years later in December 1998.

The following year   I lead the creation of Inade, the Atlantic Insurance Institute [Instituto Atlántico del Seguro], which quickly became the leading insurance consultancy in Spain for the insurance distribution market.

In 2009 the Principals at Inade set up the Inade Foundation [Fundación Inade] and ever since then I’ve been a director for both the consultancy and the foundation.

What moments would you deem most meaningful?

In terms of my early career I would single out two significant events. The first, in 1978, was when the manager of the agency gave me the opportunity to enter the world of work; the other one, in 1981, was when I initiated a contract within the firm with the brokers Gil y Carvajal (now part of   Aon).

Among the entrepreneurial projects the 1986 creation of the insurance broker Campos y Rial, and later, in 1999, the Inade, the Atlantic Insurance Institute both stand out.

Not forgetting however the time the Xunta de Galicia [regional governorship of Galicia] authorized the operation of the Inade Foundation in 2009.

As part of my work directing the Inade Foundation I would say the signing of the 2014 co-operation agreements with the universities of Santiago de Compostela and A Coruña was also significant. And in terms of the latter, in 2016, we then created the Cátedra Fundación Inade-UDC [Inade Foundation-UDC Chair] and kicked off the post-grad programme “Specialist in risk and insurance management”.

Where does this passion for risk management come from?

When I worked for my first agency, an insured transporting humid sand to a construction project had an accident as they unloaded the commodity. Settling that claim brought me into contact with the broking firm Gil y Carvajal, and out of that connection grew a co-operation agreement that made it possible for me to learn about risk management as an axis for risk transfer.

I went on to take a number of courses on risk management and one of my fundamental references remains Dr Erik Kauf who holds a PhD in Law from the University of Paris.

The Mapfre Foundation Study Centre [Centro de Estudios de la Fundación Mapfre] also helped me deepen my knowledge of risk management

What was the driving force behind the inception of the Inade Foundation?

The Board of Inade insurance consultancy, which was launched in 1999 and had undertaken a number of training activities related to risk management and insurance, had an idea for a project centred around collaboration. It wanted to create an axis for corporate development by bringing together different institutions, corporations and professionals concerned with risk management. After all, the reality is that an insurance contract is about the transfer of a given risk, and that to be able to do that well it is essential to have a real understanding of that risk.

We also believed that any institution we were to create should not only be highly participatory but should also be tax efficient so everything pointed to the creation of a foundation.

We also decided that the foundation should be autonomous and, as soon as the Principals approved the initiative, we presented the project to the regional governorship, who approved the plan in mid-2009.

Its public unveiling took place on the 26th of November 2009 at the auditorium of the University of Santiago de Compostela.

Tell us about the Foundation and its regular business.

In 2008 the entrepreneurs and directors of companies that made up the productive fabric of Galicia were, so to speak, insurance-blind, and risk, the axis for the creation of a company, was not taken into account. No wonder then that between 1972 and 2008, 12.5% of Galician companies with over 100 employees vanished because they had no adequate risk management policies in place. The most alarming thing is that these companies accounted for 25% of all jobs in Galicia, resulting in a massive number of people losing their jobs.

To address this situation the leadership of the Foundation decided to create a culture of risk management and concurrently to share the many different risk transfer solutions offered by the insurance industry.

To make it happen and deliver on the vision, the leaders annually approve a plan of action comprised of five work areas: research, training, knowledge transfer, knowledge sharing, and social action.

The economic structure underpinning the plan of action relies on three pillars: the different companies that formalise co-operation agreements with the Foundation; a large family of “friends” made up of professionals and companies that provide donations on an annual basis; and, finally, the commercial activities conducted by the institution itself.

The Foundation gets no public funding.

What does your work leading the foundation mean to you?

For  me, being the director of the Inade Foundation is  a massive responsibility, as a foundation isn’t the same as a for-profit company.

Its purpose is to bring collective improvement to society, participating in the public interest, especially because it provides employees and donors with the tax benefits provided by the Spanish Law on Patronage.

All of us who lead, or participate in the bodies of the Foundation, which is to say the Board of Directors, the Advisory Council, and Technical Committee, carry out our duties in a spirit of altruism. We have to earmark some of our free time to do the jobs we’ve taken on voluntarily.

Being a part of the Foundation also enables us to meet different people and organizations operating outside the realm of our own profession, so we do enhance our own knowledge and get to be involved in areas that we would not do otherwise.

Part of the Foundation’s mandate is to ensure connections between the insurance and risk management market and the world of academia. Tell us why and also the reason why you find this so compelling.

When we set up the Foundation  a primary objective was to build bridges with universities. .

In Galicia, we’ve forged ties with three state-run universities as that’s where our future entrepreneurs and directors will graduate. If we consider that one of the issues plaguing the productive fabric of society these days is the scarce take-up of risk management policies (as a result of a cultural deficit) and our mission is to create a risk management culture, it is evident that we need to target the university classroom with our message.

University students are the building blocks of our near future. If we can enhance their risk management culture, then we believe that we shall soon have better-managed companies, better prepared to keep risk at bay. This will benefit society as a whole, the welfare state and wealth creation.

In your opinion, what are the major impacts that the pandemic has had on the insurance and risk sector?

Although the world has suffered from various pandemics over the last 100 years, the risk was not reflected in the many reports published by experts - until now.

This is evident when you note how few insurance programmes address the risk posed by pandemics in a straightforward manner. Most contracts either exclude it outright or don't mention it at all. We have to admit that this particular risk caught risk managers by surprise.

Although a number of countries have standardized the way they handle risk, each market treats it differently from an insurance point of view.

For example, in Spain, most policies relating to medical assistance, sick leave and disease had excluded this sort of risk. When the risk did manifest the sector revealed how it interconnected with society and did not take these exclusions into account.

Where the greatest confusion arises is in contracts covering loss of business and loss of profit.

Most contracts handle this risk as though it were a complement to damages to the assets and commodities that a company employs in their line of business, and the pandemic has not resulted in property damage. In effect, some of the insured population went to court to try and get verdicts favourable to their own interest.

Nowadays, although claims are still battled out in court, very few judges have ruled for the plaintiffs.

But all these complaints have something in common. It’s the unclear wording in paragraph 3 of the Spanish Insurance Contract Law, which states that, if a policyholder does not underwrite and expressly consent to an exclusion or limitation, that exclusion or limitation will not prevail.

Additionally, the major economic recession arising out of the pandemic has collapsed some of the productive fabric, which has repercussions on the dwindling significance citizens ascribe to insurance.

In Spain, right now, data shows less business being done than for the comparable period in 2019. Certainly, this situation, compounded with others, such as natural disasters or a lack of funding for given types of risk, has led to insurers hardening their underwriting standards and limiting their risk appetite.

The sector is taking advantage of the situation to balance the books and professionalize risk management, a demand felt and expressed by society at large and insurers themselves. Advances in artificial intelligence will no doubt contribute toward that end.

Another impact of the pandemic is in connection with the way we now work. Working from home has driven up risk factors, especially for cyber risk. Let’s not forget the current crisis either, with the war in Ukraine and the sanctions that international bodies have imposed on Russia.

What have we learned?

To manage risk in a more professional manner.

What do you see in the future for the insurance and risk management sector as it faces new challenges, such as digital transformation and emerging risks?

Digital transformation is changing the world. Managing the risk inherent in this change is a task every risk manager must face.

The insurance industry was born in order to mutualize risk and that is still its mandate. The difficult part is imagining the economic consequences that emerging risk can yield and the sector must adapt to the new needs demanded by society.

We will have to rely on artificial intelligence to get more information on risk and handle it effectively. That said, I do believe risk will always lead the way.

Logistics risk will be another major risk in the near future. Nowadays, you see, production facilities are overly concentrated. And as always, trade is about getting the product from the factory floor to the final consumer, except now you won’t find your consumer in the shops. They’ll be at home buying over the Internet. Brick-and-mortar shops, as a point of sale, will undergo massive transformations and we will shift more and more of our buying to our mobile devices, away from places with four walls and a roof.

Communications will evolve alongside digital transformation. Money as we know it will change. People may not have loose change in their pockets anymore, but digital tools enabling them to do business — so the threat posed by cyber-risk shall bloom.

Finally, I believe that the public today aren’t getting their needs met and, in the future, they will put government in the hands of people with scant management experience. Leading to a possible increase in political risk.

What’s Adolfo Campos like outside of work? What do you enjoy in your spare time? Do you have hobbies?

I’m a family man and a friend to my friends. I like to take part in initiatives that lead to socializing, traveling, reading, meeting new people. I definitely am about enjoying life.

The Inade Foundation is a non-profit organization that employs all of its assets to create risk management culture and divulge the many solutions offered by the insurance industry to transfer risk.

Its territorial scope encompasses Galicia, and the Foundation has been enrolled with the foundations register of the Galician Governorship [Xunta de Galicia] since it was established in 2009.

It is a member of the Advisory Council of the Confederación de Empresarios de Galicia [Galician Entrepreneurs’ Federation] and the Asociación Española de Fundaciones [Spanish Foundation Association].

Its organic structure comprises an honorary president, the board of directors, the advisory council, the technical committee, and the administrative team.

Currently, the advisory council is comprised of Spanish market leaders in insurance and insurance distribution, and the technical committee includes the following companies: Grupo Sanjosé, Grupo Nueva Pescanova, Grupo Coppo, and Pixeling.

It maintains co-operation agreements with the University of Santiago de Compostela as its de facto research arm, and the University of A Coruña for all activities connected with training and knowledge transfer.

Every year the Foundation publishes an issue of its Cuadernos de la Cátedra series, which allows readers to enhance their knowledge on risk management and insurance.

In co-operation with the University of A Coruña, it conducts two post-grad programmes, one that trains specialists in risk management and insurance and another that trains specialists in civil liability and insurance.

Its economic structure relies on co-operation agreements, donations from “Friends of the Foundation” and the development of commercial activities.