Many people regard the insurance business as staid and unexciting, so when I found out that David Curmi, the chief executive officer of MSV Life plc, was also an artist, I was curious to find out whether his paintings, which are abstract and very colourful, were his release from his sober work environment.
“My father had recommended I go for the insurance business. I finished school in the late seventies when there were problems at university and my dad suggested I should opt for something fairly new, which insurance was at that time,” he told me. He obviously took to it like a duck to water, since he has not only been in the business for 33 years but is also one of its leading lights.
David grew up in Birkirkara because that was where he went to school. His parents moved there to be near St Aloysius College. “I was lucky in that I never needed transport to get me to school and back.”
The eldest of four boys David has very happy memories of his school days. “We bonded as a group and we still meet up every year,” he says about his classmates. He also still has ties with Birkirkara, in particular the football club, which he says is a great fan of his company. MSV Life sponsors facilities at the club. Besides, the company has also provided a turf football pitch in every village.
I asked David what other community related projects MSV Life is involved in. “One particular long standing programme that MSV is very proud of, for which, incidentally, my predecessors deserve credit not me, is an arrangement with Inspire, formerly the Eden Foundation, whereby we employ over 15 young people who would otherwise have difficulty finding jobs. The posts are quasi full time and there are two facilitators on the premises to help with training and so on,” he told me.
Getting to the nitty-gritty of the business, things have not been easy worldwide. How has the global financial slow down affected your company? I asked him.
“It has certainly left its mark and affected our revenues. Europe and the IMF will put Malta under pressure, uncertainty creates a negative sentiment and our business is very prone to sentiment.
“We are currently experiencing a lower demand for our products. Lower investment returns were and are still affected due to the eurozone problems.
“But things are not as bad as in 2008 and 2011. The life insurance market in Malta, like other international companies, had shrunk in those two years. However, that was only two dips over a span of 16 years. The current eurozone crisis will be resolved. It will be painful, but it will be resolved.”
So what is your current investment strategy? I ask him.
“We are sometimes said to be too conservative, but I am confidant that we are doing it very well. Our guiding principle is never taking unnecessary risks. We will never do anything we don’t fully understand, if we don’t understand it, our clients will not either.
“Our decision process is based on the tennis court analogy. We play centre stage, never on the edge.
“Perhaps one of our most important and fundamental responsibilities is constantly collecting and administering people’s money. We therefore adopt a very prudent and conservative stance in order to preserve the value of capital provided by our shareholders and customers.
“On the local front there are opportunities in retirement planning. Since we are the leading company in that and investment, we are looking forward with a degree of optimism that opportunities will arise in this area.”
So does his optimism extend to his painting too?
“I was 18 when I had my first exhibition, but my career restricted my painting, although I still painted at home whenever I found the time. I was lucky in that the President found out about my painting and offered me to have a recent exhibition at San Anton. That gave my work exposure and was so successful that I am now working on a second exhibition,” he said.
But art is not David’s only passion. He shares his love of music with his wife Mariella; they have just been to Milan for a Bruce Springsteen concert. Their taste in music is eclectic, ranging from rock to folk music from Africa, Asia and South America. He is a great Bob Dylan fan and not only followed his footsteps in New York, but also saw him in concert in Rome, Zurich and Sicily.
“I always have music on when I paint,” he told me.
Eclectic music taste and abstract art seem unlikely bedfellows with insurance management, yet David Curmi seems to have got them to gel for him.
Article published in the Malta Independent on Sunday 19 August 2012
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