Jeff Walker was recently appointed chief executive officer of Prudential Assurance Company in Hong Kong

Prudential Assurance Company Ltd, part of the venerable Prudential plc (UK) that started life in London in 1848, has been providing insurance services in Hong Kong since 1964. The company now has more than 4,000 insurance advisors, financial services managers and staff, most of whom are tertiary educated. Prudential Hong Kong’s strong financial foundation is evidenced by the AA+ rating bestowed by Standard & Poor’s and the Aa1 rating by Moody’s.

Prudential Hong Kong provides a wide range of insurance products to meet the needs of customers in different life stages and to care for the financial security of their families. In addition to a comprehensive range of life insurance plans, Prudential offers investment-linked assurance plans, savings plans, juvenile plans, hospital care plans and critical illness plans.

In 1998, Prudential Hong Kong joined hands with the Standard Chartered Bank to provide financial and insurance services to customers through bank branches. In 1999, the company entered into a joint venture with Bank of China International to provide Hong Kong people with Mandatory Provident Fund and pension funds management services.

Prudential’s roots in Asia are long and deep with more than 80 years of experience in the region. In Asia, Prudential is the leading European life insurer with operations in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, India, Taiwan, Vietnam, China, Japan and South Korea as well as Hong Kong. Prudential is also one of the largest asset management companies in terms of overall assets sourced in Asia ex-Japan.

In Hong Kong, Prudential has been racking up some stellar growth figures, as the company’s American Chief Executive Officer, Jeff Walker, explains. Despite highly volatile markets, growth in 2007 was 31 percent. In the first quarter of 2008, growth was 48 percent year-on-year.

Prudential Hong Kong is now in second position in terms of market share, up from fourth two years ago. Walker is confident of moving into the top position – although he declines to give a timeframe for that happening.

Up close with Jeff Walker
I’ve always enjoyed working. I grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, and people there had large lawns. Starting when I was around 10 years old, in the summer months I was knocking on doors day-to-day, cutting people’s grass. In the winter months I was grabbing the snow shovel out of our garage, shovelling people’s driveways and sidewalks, always looking to make a penny.

When I was 14 I set up a business selling consumer goods, textiles, things like that. And then in high school and college, I did heavy construction work, carrying concrete up scaffolding like you see guys do here in Hong Kong.

What that taught me was to have a lot of respect for the people who do that kind of heavy labour. It also told me what the value of an education would be. I always wanted to learn as much as I could in my 20s and make some career moves in my 30s and 40s.

I place huge value on education. I probably place a larger value on my children’s than I did on my own education.

I worked hard in college, and played hard. There was a school that I really wanted to attend for my graduate degree, and they said “No, you can’t get in. You need to move overseas and have some international experience. Your grades are fine, but you really need to be more rounded out to qualify for this school.”

So I took their advice, and I think that’s one of the things I’ll always seek is advice. I went overseas and studied for a while and reapplied to the school and got in.

I always had an interest to work in and explore different cultures around the world. Shortly after working with IBM, I joined the Foreign Commercial Service of the US government, and that gave me opportunities to work all over the world. At that time I developed a fondness for Asia. The first time I came to work in Hong Kong was in 1993-94, and I fell in love with Hong Kong. 

So when I had the opportunity to move into the private sector, it led me first to a job in New York, but I had international responsibilities, primarily Asia, and then my career led me to Asia and it’s been a wonderful time here since 2001.

When you look at the insurance industry, it’s not one of those glamour industries. When I joined the insurance sector, in the US in small towns — or even in big towns — it seems everybody knows the church pastor and the man who sells insurance. He’s an important part of people’s families, so I thought that this would be a very solid industry to get into.

But once I did get into it, I saw the direct impact it has on people’s lives, on families, on small businesses. But in broader terms I saw what it could do to the capital markets of developing economies and emerging markets. So we do see it as a noble industry, but you don’t really realise the impact it has until you experience it first hand.

I sat in this office about a month and a half ago, and sitting in that chair was the mother of a young man who was killed in an unfortunate accident. He was 25 years old, bright, energetic, and had started his career in the insurance industry. But very early on in his career he took out life insurance policies and made his mother the beneficiary because he knew that he was the one who ultimately would have to take care of her.

I knew she was already proud of her son. And when I told her about what he had done for her, that pride just exploded. She never could have imagined that he was thinking about her several years ago when he started his career.

It’s never an enjoyable experience to hand out a beneficiary cheque, but it does bring warmth to you that actions have been taken to help this family, or that small business.

Just like the insurance man in the communities that I grew up in, Prudential is very active in getting back to the communities where it operates, not just here in Hong Kong but around the world.

The Hong Kong market is highly competitive, with 47 insurers going after the population of seven million people, and this population is very well attuned to financial services. You can sit down with CEOs from India, China or the United States, and they will tell you that their market is the most competitive. I can tell you they are lying to you. I think Hong Kong is the most competitive insurance market in Asia.

But I also think there is significant upside. Why do I think so? You have growing affluence, a robust economy, an expanding international finance centre and increased economic integration taking place with Mainland China. We see capital flowing in from the Pearl River Delta from businesses that are exploding throughout the region. All that bodes well for the future growth of the market here.

If you look at what is a differentiator for Prudential, we have established this very powerful multi-distribution capability. We combine our core agency business, which has 3,600 highly trained agents that represent Prudential products just here in Hong Kong, with bank distribution. We have a very powerful bank partnership where we sell Prudential products through Standard Chartered Bank. We add on to that some cross-selling capabilities through direct marketing and telemarketing. You wouldn’t find any company in the market that has this multi-distribution strength.

So if you look at what’s happened within the top 10 players, there’s been some fairly wide fluctuations in market share. Except at Prudential. We have consistently grown our market share, from 10 percent of the market at the end of 2007 to 11.6 percent through the first quarter of 2008. I am quite confident that our market share will continue to grow.

Jeff Walker Fact File
QUALIFICATIONS: MA in International Economics from the Patterson School, University of Kentucky, in 1988, after graduating from the University of Kentucky with a BA in Marketing in 1986. He also attended the University of Copenhagen for Post-graduate studies in International Management in 1987

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS: Councilor of Life Insurance Committee of the Hong Kong Federation of Insurers; Chairman of Finance Services Committee of American Chamber of Commerce (Hong Kong)

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: Joined New York Life International in 1999. Before joining New York Life, worked for the US Foreign Commercial Service and the US Department in various capacities. 2005: President and Chief Executive of the Hong Kong operation of New York Life. From February 2008: Chief Executive Officer, Prudential Assurance Co. Ltd (Hong Kong)