When Kish Proctor started his career as a litigation lawyer, handling commercial and criminal cases, he enjoyed the intellectual challenge of solving complex problems for clients – problems that often didn't have easy answers. But after about a year or so in courtrooms, he found himself weighing up whether litigation was truly his long-term path.
"I thought, I'm not sure I see myself doing litigation long term, but I enjoyed helping clients, trying to solve problems, complex ones where there weren't easy answers," Kish reflects.
An in-house opportunity with a startup gave him exposure to advisory work, and he realised he wanted to specialise in an area with global reach. He looked at various financial services roles, but it was insurance that caught his eye.
A match made in heaven
When a policy wording and product development role appeared at Aon, Kish saw something unique. It helped that, as an avid Manchester United fan, AON was the club's shirt sponsor around that time. "I thought this is a match made in heaven," he says with a laugh.
It was the interview process that truly sold him on the industry. "From the moment I interviewed and understood the industry a little bit more, I realised, wow, there are so many facets to insurance and so many other ancillary services that sit in and around it that there's really no limit to the avenues available to you."
The global connection particularly appealed - the ability to work with colleagues around the world and connect with the reinsurance market. But perhaps most importantly, it was about impact. "Being able to provide solutions which actually, if there's a claim, help people."
From The Incredibles to reality
Kish admits his early impression of insurance was shaped by the Pixar film The Incredibles, where Mr Incredible works unhappily in an insurance firm, frustrated about a client's claim that wasn't paid.
"Sometimes I think that could be the perfect example of how people see insurance in the personal lines context. But when you see the wider world of insurance and how it works, that's definitely not the case."
"My views have definitely changed in relation to how I thought insurance works and actually the value that insurance provides to the wider business world, because really it helps get businesses up and running again. It helps businesses deal with unforeseen events. It also helps clients understand what can be insured, and what needs to be managed better from their own perspective to ensure business continuity.”
The pervasiveness of insurance
Like many people who discover the insurance industry's true scope, Kish has been struck by how pervasive it is. "All facets of life are touched by insurance in some way, in the hardest times as well," he observes.
His speciality is drafting policy wordings for business insurance clients ranging from large corporates to SMEs, across property, business interruption, commercial motor, professional indemnity, financial lines, public and products liability, and marine cargo. "Anything general insurance related is in my wheelhouse for policy drafting and complex claims," he explains.
Whether someone's passionate about football, motor racing, yachts, or farming, there's an insurance speciality for it. "It often amazes me the way insurance helps clients, no matter how big or small, get back on track.”
The adaptability imperative
When asked about the key skills needed for success in insurance (the judges cited adaptability, digital fluency, emotional intelligence, and client-centric thinking), Kish immediately zeroes in on adaptability.
"I think adaptability is key," he says emphatically. "You have these core fundamentals of insurance that underpin many insurance products. But being able to adapt those core principles or ways of working to a changing and very complex environment is key, because if you can't adapt, you can't pivot, and you can't think of different ways of doing things using the basic principles of insurance, you could get left behind."
Emotional intelligence ranks equally high for him. "Understanding the business need, where people are coming from when they approach you, that’s really, really important."
These aren't abstract qualities. In Kish's role, adaptability means responding to significant regulatory change, evolving risk appetites, and the mounting pressures of climate change. All of these factors create what he calls a "multiplier effect" with climate change considerations, shifting risk appetites, and international influences all converging at once.
A decade of transformation
In his roughly ten years in the industry, Kish has witnessed substantial transformation. "There's been a lot of change, a lot of very seasoned people retiring, a lot of new, exciting young talent in the industry as well, which is a really positive thing to see."
Regulatory changes alone have forced new ways of doing things. Add to that overseas influences, climate change considerations, and evolving risk appetites, and you have an industry in constant motion.
The upcoming changes to the Contracts of Insurance Act and Fire and Emergency Levies have direct implications for Kish's work. "At the moment, there's quite a significant impact because you're thinking about how things are done for different products, mapping out what needs to change and firming up what insurers want to do."
From a broking perspective, understanding how different insurers might take slightly different approaches to achieve the same regulatory compliance goals requires careful weighing and balancing. "How do we ensure that it works really well for our brokers and, ultimately and importantly, for our clients?"
Kish views all this change as fundamentally positive. "It's not easy, but it is for the better in my view. All those drivers have meant that you get better information, and clients probably reflect more on what they actually need. It also helps develop professionals because some of the questions that are asked and a lot of the critique that goes on is really positive and drives new thinking."
Willing to change
Some might assume that insurance, as such an established industry, would be resistant to change, but Kish sees
it differently.
"I think you could go into it and think that maybe the industry is not willing to change and adapt, but when you look at how much is driven through reinsurance markets and the mood for change, particularly at the moment, the appetite that's there is a really positive thing."
Working with professionals in the UK and other markets, as well as in New Zealand, he sees quality people driving meaningful change. "The industry is still relevant, still changing and still adapting. And there are some great leaders in the wider insurance industry in New Zealand who are embracing that change and are willing to listen as well. So that's always a positive."
Questioning the legacy
Part of adapting means challenging legacy thinking – something Kish encounters regularly in his policy wording work.
"When negotiating insurance products and drafting wordings, there's often a bit of legacy and custom that sits behind that," he explains. "Traditional clauses which have been in the wording for years – you start to question why it is set out that way. Is it because of one claim a few years ago? Can we do it differently?
"Sometimes when you question it, people just haven't had time to reflect on it. They've put something in a contract. It's sat there for a while. And when you actually start asking these questions, you get answers, and you can tailor it."
Sometimes clauses persist simply because no one has thought to challenge them. Other times, questioning reveals there's a really good reason for that particular wording. "It's always a balance," Kish notes.
The AI opportunity
Asked about AI's impact on insurance, Kish takes what he calls "a very lawyer way" of responding - he sees real opportunity, but with important caveats.
"I think it places a greater emphasis on in-depth knowledge and understanding in order to use the AI properly, because we know that sometimes the outputs can be very convincing but wrong. Because insurance is quite detail-oriented - a specific clause or explanation can really change the outcome of a claim - really understanding what the AI output is saying and what it's actually producing is very important."
Rather than threatening professional roles, he believes AI underlines the importance of human expertise. "That's why I think it's a real positive – it speeds things up, it can help deliver content quickly, but it also emphasises the importance of having really good people to evaluate and provide advice and also help our clients better understand it."
After all, clients have access to AI too. The differentiator becomes the ability to properly evaluate AI-generated content. "Having a heightened understanding or deeper knowledge of insurance is
really key."
A meritocracy with mentors
Kish agrees that insurance offers unusual opportunities for talented people willing to work hard. But he adds an important nuance to the meritocracy argument.
"Recognising opportunities is the key. Hard work helps, but you also have to recognise and not take for granted any opportunities that are offered to you.” He observes that some people look at opportunities and dismiss them as not very valuable. “But actually, sometimes senior leaders are very generous in handing out these opportunities. And if you take them, you may not realise where they may take you.”
He's been fortunate to have mentors at Aon who've helped him recognise these moments. When faced with opportunities which made him wonder whether they were the right thing for his career, his mentors have helped him see why certain projects or assignments would improve his product knowledge or help ground his skills in specific areas.
"When I actually went through those times, it helped round my character and my understanding in insurance and has given me a really good platform," he reflects.
The attraction challenge
Like the other Rising Stars, Kish recognises that insurance suffers from an awareness problem when it comes to attracting young talent. His solution? Be explicit about pathways.
"Try to show any potential young candidate all the different avenues that could be available to them and the types of skills that they would need for those roles," he suggests. "If you divided it up into a few categories and said, look, these are the general skills, but here's the career path, and even with AI and even with all these other disruptive factors, the need is there and here are the steps that you could take to get there."
The problem, he believes, is that people entering the industry sometimes feel pigeonholed. "But that's actually not the case. Sometimes you need three or four grounding years to understand the industry and become aware of all those different paths and avenues so you don't feel stuck, because the skills are really valuable and transferable as well."
This is more than theoretical for Kish. He actively promotes insurance careers in his community, even when coaching sports teams. "I've always encouraged people to consider insurance as an option because it's an undervalued industry from a career perspective. It sort of gets left behind just because of a lack of understanding, and the opportunities are real."
His pitch is practical and forward-looking. "You'll always be able to transfer those skills, whether it's working for an insurer, a brokerage, an advisory firm, or even a client as a risk manager. The skills are only going to get more valuable over time."
Beyond the office
Outside of work, Kish's passions reflect his international outlook. As a devoted Manchester United fan, football is a constant in his life. He's coached sports teams in the community, loves going to the gym, and particularly enjoys overseas travel.
With family in Asia and throughout Europe, he tries to visit regularly. His next planned trip is to Africa, likely in May, assuming he can carve out time given the significant regulatory change workload ahead.
Kish Proctor is a legal counsel specialising in policy wordings and complex claims at Aon, covering property, business interruption, commercial motor, professional indemnity, financial lines, public and products liability, and marine cargo. He was recently named one of Insurance Business Magazine's Rising Stars of 2025 for Australia, New Zealand and Asia. When not drafting policy wordings or navigating regulatory change, Kish enjoys supporting Manchester United (through thick and thin), coaching sports teams, and planning his next international adventure.
