Latest news with #Howden
The Irish Sun
3 days ago
- Sport
- The Irish Sun
Brian O'Driscoll surprises special needs rugby team by leading training session in Kildare
BRIAN O'Driscoll surprised the MU Barnhall Buffaloes in Leixlip by leading their training session on Wednesday. The MU Barnhall Buffaloes are a tag rugby team for adults with special needs which was started in 2015 to put a big emphasis on fun and community participation. 4 Howden ambassador O'Driscoll greeting some of the Buffaloes Credit: Howden 4 O'Driscoll wasn't afraid to join in on the action Credit: Howden 4 Ireland's all-time leading try scorer posing for a picture at the event Credit: Howden 4 The former Lions captain gave the Buffaloes a few tips Credit: Howden The team is based on the Maynooth University Barnhall grounds in Parsonstown, Leixlip, Co. Kildare. The event, which celebrated the values of connection, inclusion, and purpose, saw O'Driscoll lead a special training session with the Buffaloes. Known for his legendary rugby career, the three-time Lion brought his trademark charisma, warmth, and genuine enthusiasm to every interaction, from coaching drills and signing rugby balls to posing for photos and chatting with guests. The former Leinster and Ireland centre enjoyed the event saying: "It was great to spend the morning at Barnhall RFC with the Buffaloes team. Read more on Irish Sport "Diversity in sport is so important - meeting and interacting with the team and having fun is what it's all about. "I think the joy rugby has brought to so many of us and the values that it teaches, it certainly helps in all walks of life." A highlight of the day was a special Q&A session led by Noel Dillon, Chairman of MU Barnhall RFC, where Brian reflected on his career. The importance of resilience and teamwork, and what it means to adopt a 'no limits' mindset — a message that resonated deeply with everyone in attendance. Most read in Rugby Union With the 2025 Lions team in action last week O'Driscoll shared his personal experience of being on tour with the Lions. He said: "Training in Lions is spectacular you have to bring your A game every single day because everyone's at such a high skill level. 'Big weekend' - Peter O'Mahony embarking on hectic gardening project as he aims to add '300 plants' "It was peoples capacity, players capacity to be told something once and show it at training." The British and Irish Lions principal partner Howden hosted the heartwarming event. The Howden CEO Robert Kennedy said: 'This event was a true celebration of what sport and community can achieve together. "We are incredibly proud to support initiatives that bring people together and create lasting memories.' The day left a lasting impression on all who attended, including Brian himself, and served as a powerful reminder of the joy that comes from showing up with heart and engaging with purpose.
Zawya
4 days ago
- Business
- Zawya
Howden announces its entry into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to drive strategic growth opportunities
London – Howden, the global insurance intermediary group, today announces that it has received regulatory approval to launch a reinsurance operation in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The new business will be led by Motaz Bukhari, who has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of Howden Re, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). This announcement reflects Howden's commitment to investing in new markets, offering a home for local and global talent and greater choice for clients and carriers in Saudi Arabia and the wider region. Motaz Bukhari brings with him a wealth of experience, having spent 12 years in the insurance industry. Over the past five years, he held various leadership roles at Marsh Guy Carpenter in Saudi Arabia, most recently serving as Deputy CEO. His career also includes seven years on the underwriting side, specialising in Property and Energy at Arch. He began his professional journey as an engineer with Saudi Aramco. Howden Re KSA will provide reinsurance brokerage services across Treaty and Facultative placements, in addition to offering strategic advice on leveraging data, analytics and capital markets expertise for the Saudi market. Howden Re will be partnering with local, culturally aligned businesses and investing in local talent to scale the business quickly and effectively. David Howden CBE, CEO, Howden said: 'We couldn't be more excited to open the doors to Howden KSA. This is a country buzzing with opportunity. It is one of the fastest growing economies in the G20 with a hugely ambitious vision that puts insurance front and centre. We have already built up a strong partnership with the Kingdom thanks to our role as part of the UK government's Great Futures delegation, our work with Saudi EXIM bank and our sponsorship of the Jockey Club of Saudi Arabia. We now look forward to turbocharging our efforts – building a long-term commitment with our Saudi partners, providing innovative solutions to the local market, and a fresh alternative for home-grown talent.' Richard Mockett, CEO, Howden Middle East and Africa, commented: "Saudi Arabia's extraordinary pace of development presents a unique opportunity for the (re)insurance sector to play a critical role in supporting and de-risking the Kingdom's ambitious initiatives. We are proud to announce our entry into this strategically vital market, marking a significant moment in our ongoing expansion across the Middle East. Under Motaz's leadership and guidance, we are confident that Howden will make a huge contribution to Saudi Arabia's dynamic and rapidly evolving (re)insurance sector." Mario Baotic, Head of International Growth Markets, Howden Re, said: 'Our entry into Saudi Arabia marks an important milestone in Howden Re's international growth and reinforces our commitment to the Middle East. With its ambitious economic transformation and increasing demand for sophisticated risk solutions, the Kingdom offers significant opportunities to deliver real value through our specialist expertise and data-driven capabilities. We are here to build for the long term – partnering locally, investing in local talent, and shaping a new chapter of reinsurance innovation and resilience across the region.' About Howden Howden is a leading global insurance intermediary group with employee ownership at its heart. Founded in 1994, it provides insurance, reinsurance and underwriting services and solutions to clients ranging from private individuals to the largest multinational companies. The Group operates in 55 countries in Europe, Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, the USA, Australia and New Zealand, employs 22,000 people and manages premiums totalling USD 45 billion on behalf of its clients. About Howden Re Howden Re is the global reinsurance and capital markets arm of Howden. Offering risk, capital, and strategic advisory, Howden Re is distinguished by its innovative service offering, entrepreneurial leadership approach, and commitment to excellence. With a broad suite of services and specialities, differentiated capital structure, and growing global team, Howden Re aims to deliver outsized value to reinsurance clients.
Forbes
6 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
The Financial Frontier of Climate Risk and Resilience
Pedestrians walk past a stock indicator showing share prices of the Tokyo Stock Exchange (top-C) and ... More other overseas stock markets in Tokyo. (Photo by Kazuhiro NOGI / AFP) (Photo credit should read KAZUHIRO NOGI/AFP via Getty Images) As climate impacts intensify and financial markets adapt, two new reports —Howden's Insurability Imperative and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development's 2025 Business Breakthrough Barometer— reveal a reality that diverges sharply from the prevailing narrative. Despite headlines about ESG backlash and net-zero retreats, companies are not abandoning climate goals. They are embedding them into core strategy, shifting from compliance to competitiveness. At the same time, insurers are redrawing the boundaries of investability, making insurability a frontline filter for capital allocation. These trends mark a profound shift in how risk is understood, priced, and managed. Climate change is not tied to political cycles or market sentiment. Its impacts are structural and cumulative, reshaping both the physical world and global finance. As the Barometer notes, 'where governments lead with clarity, business capital follows'. In the absence of coherent policy, insurers are stepping in to decide what can and cannot be financed. With governments falling short, markets are beginning to price in climate resilience —and for many sectors, it's no longer optional. Climate Risk Is Market Risk The Business Breakthrough Barometer underscores this shift. Despite public skepticism and ESG backlash, most companies are not abandoning their goals. Instead, they are reallocating capital based on a more immediate truth, that climate risk has become business risk According to the Copernicus Climate Change Service, we are on track to breach the 1.5 °C warming threshold within six years or less. This is not a future concern but a present financial reality. Record heatwaves, vanishing ice and billion-dollar disasters are reshaping how risk is modeled and priced. As WBCSD president and chief executive Peter Bakker said in an interview: 'The climate won't wait for the market to find consensus. It won't adjust itself to quarterly earnings. What it demands is system change, in how we price risk, share it, and design markets around physical realities.' The economic transition is unfolding in ways that traditional business systems cannot manage. Companies still rely on linear models — forecasts, fixed returns, long timelines — while the net-zero shift is volatile, uneven and often misaligned with policy and consumer behavior. This misalignment plays out across sectors. EV production is accelerating while charging infrastructure lags. Carbon capture projects are stalling amid weak demand signals, while the decarbonisation of buildings is slowed by outdated codes and permitting bottlenecks. In each case, technological readiness is colliding with systems that are not fit for transition. As Bakker argues, sustainability must move from reporting to real governance, from targets to embedded decision-making. That means adopting robust frameworks like the ISSB's S1 and S2, aligning climate strategy with operational and financial reality. The Barometer reveals a decisive shift: 91% of companies surveyed have either maintained or increased their climate-related investments over the past year (as of May 2025). Crucially, 56% cited long-term competitiveness, not compliance, as the main driver. While high-profile exits from alliances like the Net-Zero Banking Alliance or corporate withdrawal and redesign of net zero targets dominate headlines, many firms are shifting focus. They are beginning to embed climate resilience into core business functions such as capital planning, supply chains and governance. 'We've got sufficient data to act,' said Bakker. 'The perfect mustn't delay progress.' Nowhere is this financial recalibration more visible than in insurance markets. Howden's new Insurability Imperative report warns that insurability is becoming a prerequisite for investability. As climate risks escalate, insurers are withdrawing from high-risk zones and redlining regions. What cannot be insured cannot be financed, and what cannot be financed cannot scale. Historical shocks have prompted similar responses: the Great Fire of London led to fire codes and insurance pools, while 19th-century boiler explosions catalyzed modern engineering standards. Today's escalating climate risks are driving a comparable redesign in how markets address risk particularly in infrastructure, agriculture, and real estate. Insurability now operates as an early indicator of systemic viability, determining which assets, sectors, and geographies remain viable. To secure capital companies must increasingly demonstrate resilience through adaptation planning, risk mitigation and long-term feasibility. 'Resilience is investable,' Bakker says. 'But only if we build the conditions to make it so, together.' This marks a deeper shift in how risk is understood and priced. Unlike weather patterns, climate change isn't cyclical—it brings long-term, structural disruption that's redefining business models and investment priorities. As the Barometer notes, where governments lead with clarity, capital follows. In the absence of coherent policy, insurers are stepping in to decide what can and cannot be financed. With governments falling short, markets are beginning to price in climate resilience and for many sectors, it is no longer optional. When Policy Stalls, Capital Retreats Bakker argues that the climate transition depends on aligning three forces: policy, business, and finance. Policy sets direction, business delivers scale, and finance provides capital. When these pillars are aligned, markets function but when they are not, the system stalls. This disconnect plays out across sectors and is creating tangible capital bottlenecks, with the misalignment especially visible in energy markets. While capital still flows disproportionately to low-risk, mature technologies like solar and wind, funding for capital intensive decarbonisation solutions like hydrogen and carbon capture are falling. In 2024, global investment in clean energy reached a record $2 trillion yet hydrogen investment declined by 42%, and carbon capture by 56%. These bottlenecks are not down to a lack of ambition but rather structural weaknesses, including lack of regulatory certainty, underdeveloped infrastructure, and crucially a lack of offtake agreements to guarantee long-term market demand. 'There must be offtake,' said Bakker. 'There must be market creation.' Policy must now evolve to enable markets, not just regulate them. Ninety-four percent of Barometer respondents said clear, consistent policy is essential to unlock climate investment but 54% no longer trust governments to deliver them. That credibility gap is already reshaping capital flows and creating geographic winners and losers. According to the Barometer, Asia and Europe are increasingly viewed as more attractive for investment than the United States. In the U.S., political volatility has undermined confidence in the Inflation Reduction Act contributing to nearly $15.5 billion in abandoned or scaled-back projects. 'Markets need frameworks that translate ambition into investable pathways and real-world price signals,' Bakker said. Insurability, investability, and effective regulation are now interdependent. Unless policy reflects the full scope of physical and financial risk, not just short-term political cycles, systems that look solid on paper may collapse under pressure. The growing pressure in insurance markets underscores the urgency as attention turns to COP30 in Brazil. 'We don't need another moment of intent' warns Bakker. 'We need a moment of delivery.' Two structural shifts are defining this new phase: implementation is moving from public to private actors, those who control supply chains, capital, and operations; meanwhile momentum is shifting from the Global North to the Global South, where climate vulnerability, economic growth, and industrial opportunity increasingly converge. The climate transition can be profitable, resilient, and equitable if businesses, policymakers, and financial institutions can co-create markets grounded in both physical and financial realities. The markets that align around this are likely to shape the next era of economic leadership.
BBC News
6 days ago
- Automotive
- BBC News
Howden relief road construction to start in July
Work to build a new £45m relief road in Howden is due to start at the beginning of July, a council has route would connect the A614 Thorpe Road with Station Road and was expected to take two years to Riding of Yorkshire Council said the scheme was "designed to reduce congestion by diverting heavy traffic away from the town centre, reducing accidents, lowering carbon emissions and improving travel times".Councillor Gary McMaster, the authority's cabinet member for planning, housing and infrastructure, said: "This initiative is part of wider aspirations to enhance infrastructure in Yorkshire and the Humber, ensuring smoother transportation and grow the economy." Sheffield-based firm Aureos Highways was awarded a contract for the project, which also included building four roundabouts for the authority said the work would begin on Thorpe Road and would include the installation of a new pump station for surface water to the south of the site to improve drainage. "While the vast majority of the work will be carried out off road, there will be times of traffic management on Thorpe Road and Station Road, although disruption will be kept to a minimum," a council spokesperson McMaster said the new link road would "significantly improve connectivity and ease congestion, giving HGV traffic a different route to avoid the town centre, for the benefit of both motorists, residents and businesses in Howden".Louise Pavitt, managing director of Aureos Highways, said: "We are delighted to be supporting East Riding of Yorkshire Council on the Howden Relief Road scheme."This project is a critical step towards economic development in the region and will provide much needed highways improvements, opening up new routes and easing scheme is funded by local housing developers and the authority via government grants totalling £ for the relief road was approved by the authority's planning committee in June 2023 as part of proposals to build 1,900 homes, a school and a pub. Listen to highlights from Hull and East Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here.
Yahoo
21-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'Dream come true' for singer going to Glastonbury
A singer-songwriter says it is a "dream come true" to be performing at Glastonbury. Fiona-Lee, 24, from Howden, East Yorkshire, has been chosen to play at one of the world's biggest music festivals on 26 June. She will perform six songs from her debut EP Nothing Compares to Nineteen on the BBC Introducing stage, alongside several other new British artists. "I've never even been to the festival so the fact that I'm playing is absolutely mental," she said. Fiona said she grew up listening to bands such as Pink Floyd, Kings of Leon and Fleetwood Mac. At the age of 14, Fiona started to teach herself guitar, spending her lunch hours in the music room, even skipping some lessons to pursue her interest. While she described herself as "very shy" in school, she discovered her passion for performing during her first open mic night at the School of Rock in Goole when she was 15. "The reaction from everyone was so nice and positive and it felt so good. "That was the moment I realised it was what I wanted to do and it was such a buzz," she said. She went on to perform in Hull at the age of 17 when she first started to get into the city's music scene. Fiona found out she would be performing at Glastonbury during a gig with BBC Introducing at the end of May. When she was informed on stage, she said she was "just in shock". "Afterwards I ran into the control room and just started jumping up and down and just burst into tears. "All of the presenters could see me through the glass. It was really overwhelming and just made my day," she said. She added: "I'm bringing one of my best mates and it's going to be the best weekend ever." Steve and Bev, Fiona's parents said they were "chuffed" to hear she would be performing at Glastonbury. "Years ago we would be somewhat taken aback at open mic nights. "After Fi had played her set, strangers would come up to congratulate us, shake our hands and enthuse about her. "We would hold our hands up and say that it had nothing to do with us, it's just her," they said. Fiona will also be headlining the BBC Introducing Stage at the Humber Street Festival at Hull Marina in August. Listen to highlights from Hull and East Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here. Glastonbury 2025: Full line-up and stage times revealed Glastonbury Festival 2025: What you need to know 'Thank you, Hull': Calum Scott on a decade of fame Music event imperative to Unesco bid - councillor Fiona-Lee Glastonbury Festival BBC Introducing
