We Will Become a Key Player in Health Insurance

The award for contribution in insurance that I received in the contest 2018 Insurer of the Year, I humorously define as a lifetime achievement award. My whole professional development is dedicated to insurance.

I entered the insurance sector by accident, as it happens with most successful endevours. I studied Accounting and Control in Svishtov and started working at a large production site in my native city - Lovech. I worked there for a month but I found out that this was not for me, so I left. I was invited to start working in the insurance sector and I became an inspector in Bulgaria Insurance Company (now Alianz). I learned quickly. After two and a half years, there was an opening for chief director of DZI - Lovech branch. I applied as a joke, they selected me and we quickly became the most profitable branch of DZI. After a bit more than two years, one of the directors of DZI who was responsible for the general insurance left and I was invited to take his position. That is how I arrived in Sofia. I was only 28 years old and this was an incredible learning experience for me. In 2002, the state decided to sell DZI to an owner for whom I did not want to work, and together with around 80-100 people from DZI, we established Victoria Insurance Company. These were golden years in which we had the chance to create an exemplary work mechanism and to build a successful company; this was the happiest time in my professional carrier. When you create something from scratch, it gives you wings and freedom, and you do not have to reform a rigid structure. We were like-minded people who gathered together to show that in insurance there can be quality of work.

I am in this business for 23 years now, 20 of them holding leading positions. In insurance, you can apply all knowledge and show all qualities that God has blessed you with.

A factor in my fast professional growth was the happy string of coincidences. We should also assign some of my success to my youth - I was brave, strong-minded and energetic. I believed that everything could happen in the best way, I did not have the limitations that experience sets upon you and things worked out. Something else that helped me was my morality and the strong foundations that I had. I resisted many temptations, especially in the first years of my carrier. While flying in the clouds, I stood firmly on the ground. I selectively listened to people around me and this also helped. Until I gained experience, my intuition was a good advisor. I worked a lot.

The role of the brand in insurance is enormous. That is why 5 years after we created Victoria, I was convinced that we needed a partner that could be like a rocket carrier - with products, statistics, a strong brand. We shook hands with Generali, but in 2015 the headquarters in Italy decided to become the owner of all companies it partnered with. We united Victoria and Generali Bulgaria, but people also had to start thinking as one. We became a company in which 1 plus 1 equalled exactly 2.2 and noless as it usually happens. For a third consecutive year, we end up with profit.

The name becomes a brand in time. You need to be fully committed to what you do. High competence and the following of set goals is what is required.

Our goal is for the insurance market in Bulgaria to become well capitalised. Reserves are important in order to meet current and future liabilities when compensations have to be paid. Unfortunately, our sector does not have a good reputation in Bulgaria.

I support the voluntary principle of insurance because I believe that when you are the owner of something, you have to take care of it. It is logical to insure your property and get compensation if anything happens to it.

Natural disasters are the biggest enemy, but also the best friend of insurance, as a good company can be recognised when it has to pay for the damage. I do not worry in such moments, because this is when the client sees that we are there for him and he gets the most qualitative compensation.

Good reputation is created when you are honest and fulfil your commitments.

Health insurance has a great potential; currently, it is of negligible volume.

A good leader must have strong morality and discipline, set a personal example and be able to create a successful team. He must have natural leadership qualities, but he must also develop them. A leader learns constantly and the environment he works in is very important.

Several reasons to choose Generali: Experts with vast experience work here. The company passed the stress tests successfully; it also has the best reserves. Generali is a brand that has been proving its qualities for 200 years now.

Our top priorities in Bulgaria are to become a key player in the retail business and a leader in health insurance, to be the most innovative company on the insurance market. Our highest priority is to keep our quality professionals and to attract new staff.