About DH AgRisk
The principal partners began working together in 2000. Both are from very different backgrounds, John having spent most of his working life in the insurance and reinsurance industry and Gary, a similar amount of time in the agricultural sector. This collective experience in both the crop and livestock sectors is unrivalled and over the last fifteen years, they have forged a partnership that is unique to the industry. As highly skilled practitioners in this sector, they have developed many risk transfer solutions across most segments of the agricultural sector.
Between them they have over 70 years combined market and broking experience, specialising in the production, servicing and marketing of agricultural insurance and reinsurance risk management solutions, worldwide.
The Partners
John Drakeford
John Drakeford has 40 years market and broking experience, 30 of which he has specialized in the production, servicing and marketing of agricultural insurance and reinsurance business worldwide.
ā
John Drakeford and Gary Hutchings joined Aon Benfield’s London based Global Reinsurance Specialty Division in 2011. They created a global agricultural capability to support local offices and respond to the needs of the offices and their clients for innovative risk management solutions.
ā
Prior to this John was a Director at BMS Ltd, where he and Gary established and led a global agricultural specialist capability.
ā
Before BMS John was with Guy Carpenter Ltd, for 15 years. He was a Principal of the company and joint head of Global Agriculture with territorial responsibility for all property and casualty business in South Africa and India.
ā
Experience includes:
-
Reinsurance program design
-
Agricultural and livestock insurance product development
-
Property and casualty reinsurance
Gary Hutchings
Gary Hutchings’ depth and breadth of experience in the agriculture sector has been gained from over 30 years in the industry. He was a senior manager at Dalgety, the largest agricultural supply company and feed manufacturer in Europe. He is an experienced commodity trader and risk manager and founding partner of a specialist consulting firm, providing risk management services to some of Europe’s largest agriculture processing companies.
ā
Gary teamed up with John firstly at Guy Carpenter and subsequently BMS. The partnership continued into Aon Benfield where together they created a unique and specialist agricultural resource.
ā
With an honours degree in animal production and physiology from Nottingham University and an Executive MBA from Bath University, Gary also has very strong technical qualifications.
ā
Experience includes:
-
Crop and livestock Insurance and reinsurance product design and development
-
Commodity markets and derivatives
-
Risk management consultancy
Key Milestones
ā
-
Our innovative approach to seemingly impossible challenges, be they highly epidemic animal diseases in Canada, or large farming groups in Central and Eastern Europe, has led to the design, development and implementation of a number of ground-breaking risk transfer solutions.
ā
-
Designed, developed and implemented an insurance program for the majority of poultry producers in Canada against losses associated with epidemic and non-epidemic diseases, such as Avian Influenza (AI), Infectious Larangytis Typhourium( ILT), Mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG) and Salmonellae (Se).
ā
-
Following a major outbreak of Avian Influenza in 2017 in South Africa, DHA designed and implemented an insurance program, which is reinsured in the international markets. This innovative solution, for a large integrated producer, was the first of its kind in this territory.
ā
-
Created and implemented a bespoke yield based insurance solution for 2 US-based Investment funds that are collectively cultivating around 450,000 hectares of arable land in the Ukraine and 250,000 hectares in Russia.
Meet the Team
_.jpg)