Our first guest on the Compounders podcast was Weston Hicks, the CEO of Alleghany Corporation. Alleghany (Ticker: Y) is a Fortune 500, $9.45B market cap company that focuses primarily on the insurance and re-insurance industry. Weston became CEO all the way back in late 2004 and since then, the company has grown its book value significantly and, like a mini-Berkshire Hathaway, has built up an interesting portfolio of non-insurance businesses that includes everything from a machine tool company to a toy company. And the Berkshire parallels don’t end there. Weston is a value investor at heart and is well known for his eclectic shareholder letters where he dives deep into the insurance industry and the capital markets as a whole.
Weston was a key driver of the company’s 2011 transformational merger with TransRe, a deal that established Alleghany as a global insurance powerhouse.
After close to 20 years with the company, Weston will be retiring at the end of this year. So, I thought it would be a great opportunity to talk to Weston before he officially leaves the CEO seat and get his insights and perspectives, on a variety of topics, including:
- His thoughts on what makes a compounder
- A century of value investing at Alleghany
- The benefits and the setbacks associated with the merger with TransRe
- How to compensate people and establish a competitive advantage within the insurance industry
- The emergence of ESG and how that impacts a company that underwrites catastrophe risks
Please enjoy the interview at the following sites:
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/century-wealth-creation-weston-hicks-ceo-alleghany/id1579124518?i=1000531569256
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENYOKKjGIQ8
Podbean: https://compounders.podbean.com/e/a-century-of-wealth-creation-with-weston-hicks-ceo-of-alleghany-corporation-nyse-y/
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3chaofVlIQ03APKn83TNIC
Also, if you have any comments, feedback, or guest recommendations, please contact us at podcast@covestreetcapital.com. You can also follow the podcast on Twitter @ https://twitter.com/CompoundersPod.
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