A London-founded, employee-owned insurance broker that places cover for UK businesses and individuals, with specialist teams in areas such as cyber, property, liability and employee benefits.
Howden is an insurance broker. A broker sits between a business or person who needs insurance and the insurers who provide it, and works out what cover is needed, finds the best terms and helps if a claim is made. Howden's UK teams serve small and large UK companies, including international businesses, across property, liability, real estate, cyber, cargo, trade credit and employee benefits, with specialist work in areas such as mergers and acquisitions, captives (a company's own insurance vehicle) and reinsurance. Businesses it has brought together in the UK include Barnett Waddingham and A-Plan, which now operate within Howden UK and Ireland.
Howden was founded in 1994 by David Howden, who wanted to build a firm that would never be sold. He had seen the insurance companies he worked for taken over by bigger rivals. The company says it began as "just three people and a dog" in a rented one-room London office. Its website lists four principles it says have been there since the start: employee ownership, specialist expertise and creativity, trust and integrity rooted in friendship, and independence to make its own decisions.
Howden's UK registered office and origin is London, and its head office is at One Creechurch Place, London EC3A. A UCAS employer profile lists UK locations in London, Milton Keynes, Birmingham and Manchester. Howden describes itself as the fifth largest employee-owned business in the UK. In May 2023 it reported about 4,500 employee shareholders, making employees its largest group of owners. The group says it has around 20,000 colleagues worldwide, though the UK share of that is not stated on the pages we read.
People who work there describe the culture in their own words on Howden's UK site. One divisional director says the "family comes first" idea is practised, not just written down. A digital transformation lead says people are the biggest focus, "not the technology", and a business development manager says "you are not just a number". Those are individual staff comments on the company's own site, so treat them as the company's picture of itself. Howden also runs an employee-led inclusion group called RESPECT, and the Howden Foundation, set up in 2014, supports charities in many countries.
Jobs at a broker are wider than many young people expect. The people we found on the site include consultants, divisional directors, operations managers, business development managers and digital and technology specialists, alongside underwriters, deal lawyers and brokers. If you like numbers, people, problem-solving or law, there is probably a part of the business that fits. Look at the Howden UK site for the current list of roles.
Website: www.howdengroup.com/uk-en
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