People & Culture Series EP01 - Insurance Coffee House: Talent Development, HR Leadership, Culture & Hiring for Potential - Nicola Nairn, Group Head of HR (Lancashire Insurance Group)

People & Culture Series EP01 - Insurance Coffee House: Talent Development, HR Leadership, Culture & Hiring for Potential - Nicola Nairn, Group Head of HR (Lancashire Insurance Group)

From The Insurance Coffee House with Nick Hoadley by Insurance Search

May 5, 2026 · 25 min · Season 8 · Episode 1

About this episode

Nicola Nairn discusses her HR career journey and the importance of talent development and culture at Lancashire Insurance Group.

On this episode of the Insurance Coffee House, Nick Hoadley is joined by Nicola Nairn, Group Head of HR at Lancashire Insurance Group, a global specialty insurance and reinsurance business operating across London, Bermuda, the US, and Australia. Nicola shares her career journey into HR, starting on the trading floor at Morgan Stanley before moving into asset management and eventually transitioning into human resources. She reflects on how an unplanned move into HR led to a long-term career in reward and, later, broader HR leadership, bringing a strong commercial lens to people strategy. The conversation explores how Lancashire has grown from around 300 to 450 employees in recent years, and how the focus has now shifted from expansion to optimising the structure, effectiveness, and development of the organisation. Nicola explains how this creates opportunities to focus more deeply on talent, mobility, and long-term capability building across the business. Nick and Nicola discuss practical approaches to talent development, including identifying high-potential and high-performing individuals, building internal mobility, and combining external training with internal initiatives such…

People in this episode

Host: Nick Hoadley

Guest: Nicola Nairn

Topics covered

  • Talent Development
  • HR Leadership
  • Organizational Culture
  • Hiring for Potential
  • Employee Growth
  • Internal Mobility

Keywords

  • HR
  • Talent Development
  • Organizational Culture
  • Employee Growth
  • Internal Mobility
  • Mentoring
  • Knowledge Sharing

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Lancashire Insurance Group, Morgan Stanley

Places: London, Bermuda, US, Australia

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