The Birth of the British Insurance Awards

The birth of the BIA's

One of the most significant developments of recent times saw the light of day in 1995 when the British Insurance Awards was launched. Then publisher, the late Matthew Townsend, saw the opportunity to bring together the various stand-alone award initiatives that Post Magazine had initiated over the previous few years to create a single, major award scheme for the industry. The British Insurance Awards were first presented at Grosvenor House in July 1995. Today, they are held annually at the Royal Albert Hall before almost 2000 people and attract hundreds of entries from every sector of the market. They are the largest business-to-business award scheme in the country. Post Magazine was on the move again in 1996, as it left Fleet Street for the second time, this time for the trendy surrounds of Covent Garden. Stephen Womack moved on and David Worsfold took over the day-to-day editorship again. In November 1997, Timothy Benn ended his 12 year ownership of the company in a £16m management buy-in that put Roger Michael and Matthew Townsend at the helm, and a new editor eventually followed with the appointment of Anthony Gould from another historic weekly – The Engineer ­– in January 1999.