Colin Thomas Retirement Dinner 23/11/06

Colin, we're so pleased to have joined you in what is a celebration of the coming to an end of an era. What is an era? The Collins English Dictionary quotes "a period in time considered as distinctive". In your case this is 46 years in the credit insurance industry! It was 6 years before England won the Football World Cup (how many of us old un's can remember seeing that?!) that a shy, nervous and athletic young man walked through the doors of Export Credits Guarantee Department at Gresham Street in London to begin a career in credit insurance. Colin was the only new entrant that year! He had joined the Short Term New Business unit as a clerical officer, and it wasn't long before he started to make more-than-necessary trips to the in-house typing pool, always at a rush with the door pushed wildly before him, since he’d met and fallen in love with a Christine Moggeridge - a sweet 16-year old, soon to become Mrs Colin G Thomas. I said "athletic" to describe Colin at that time because he was a top class sprinter, reaching the AAA junior finals and in his early years at ECGD, Colin competed in Civil Service Sports days against names remembered by some us here, Jerry Friend and Bob Dobson. Colin was promoted in 1967 and he found himself commuting from Hertfordshire against the torrent of office workers crossing a derelict London Bridge, to the ECGD South London Office at Bermondsey to work with another name remembered by us, John Wright. The following year was a pivotal point in Colin’s career – he turned his back on London and emmigrated to the frozen lands of West Yorkshire, as Office Manager of ECGD’s Leeds office. Now in those days, when credit limit applications were made by Royal Mail, and fax machines and computers were science fiction stories, ECGD had Northern Offices in Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield, Newcastle and Manchester. The pace of life was much slower than today and Colin tells me that with his civil service hours and his nominal workload, the Thomas' lawn was the best mown in Leeds! It couldn't last, however, and there was the inevitable merger of offices – Cardiff was briefly considered as an option, but quickly dismissed; the return to his father’s homeland was not to be – and Colin made the poacher-turned-gamekeeper move to the broker, Stewart Wrightson. There he met up with Paul Dawson (Damien, his son is here tonight), Margaret and yours truly. This was 1974. Colin's strengths are making clients' requirements his top priority, understanding the small print and accepting no bull shit from underwriters! These skills were honed and refined whilst under the guidance of the Stewart Wrightson M.D. in Leeds at that time, Harry Purchase, a big influence in Colin’s career. Apart from growing the credit insurance book in Leeds, particularly with the medium term business of Simon Rosedowns from Hull, Colin also had responsibility for placing marine cargo business. However, his most memorable success, Colin tells me, was in a Stewart Wrightson evening cricket match against an insurers XI at Roundhay Park when he bowled an 11 ball over (that is, it included five wides) but within it took four wickets to win the game!...something our English cricketers could do with today down-under! The next career move for Colin was in the early 1980's when he joined the credit department of Bain Dawes and met up with current colleagues, Steve Norman, Andrew Lane and Andrew Hudson; also here tonight, Paula Gent and Amanda Brown. It was at that time Colin was introduced to the BSS Group, a company that has grown considerably over the years by acquisition, and is represented here tonight by Dave Froud and Alan Patterson. Much to the continual dismay of underwriters, BSS have made frequent and large claims against them, all successfully negotiated by our Colin. The Bain Dawes/Hogg Robinson merging in 1994 resulted in many changes and the final move of Colin's career was to join Jardine Credit Insurance in our Bradford office – reuniting him with several of his erstwhile Stewart Wrightson colleagues...and shortly thereafter BSS was reunited with Colin as a JCI client! Over the last 12 years JCI/TDF/GE has been through its highs and lows, with a multitude of owners and managing directors, but we are now pleased to be within IRC Europe. Throughout this time, Colin has always worked hard, diligently and for the client. In recent months he's openly referred to himself as "the old git" , although some us have named him that for much longer, as the end of 2006 approaches! Colin's 65th birthday looms ever closer – but our office will not be same without you, Colin. Thank you for all your excellent work over the many years; you will be missed by colleagues, clients and even underwriters (as evidenced by those here tonight). But this is only a platform for a new era. Christine will see more of you than ever before and I know you have plans for overseas travel and house modifications...as well as family affairs. I'm sure also that we will stay in touch with each other.