Andrew Hillier is a Chartered Surveyor with over 25 years’ experience in the property industry. He has applied his property and business experience to a wide variety of entrepreneurial companies.
His first professional property consultancy in the golf course market has been followed by several ventures in property development, consultancy, IT and renewable energy sectors. In 2013 he co-founded DUAL Asset Underwriting which has rapidly become the leading global insurer for legal indemnities.
Andrew talks about the best part of building his own business, his relationship with B P Collins and his company’s plans for future.
How did you get to where you are today – what qualities do you think helped you to achieve this?
To be honest I wasn’t very academic but I was very determined and wanted to make money by running my own businesses. I also firmly believe that if you do something you enjoy and are passionate about it, that goes a long way to achieving success.
What’s the best part of your job?
I’m really enjoying building a successful business with a young and very driven team. Together we are ensuring that they will have a strong, stable business to continue on in the future.
How have you contributed to Dual Asset Underwriting’s success?
I was lucky enough to co found the business with my friend Phillip Oldcorn. It was our combined knowledge and experience of the M&A and property markets that enabled us to be successful. B P Collins has advised us all the way, from setting up the company at the beginning to our shareholder agreement with our joint venture partner and to various share sales that have occurred over the past five years.
What are the company’s plans for the future?
We are currently the global leader in providing title and legal indemnity insurance in over 40 countries worldwide. We also have ambitious plans to grow our business in the US, Japan and Australasia.
What challenges does your sector face and how can they be overcome?
Brexit has been our biggest challenge in the last 24 months, as it forced us to set up in Dublin and Warsaw in case pass porting ended. A slowdown in the global M&A market would also be difficult but our wide geographical spread means we should be resilient to a slowdown in any one area.
If you weren’t the Executive Chairman of Dual Asset Underwriting – what would you be doing?
Property and deal making are my passions, so the most likely scenario would be running a property company.
B P Collin’s corporate and commercial practice has advised Andrew Hiller and Dual Asset for
A number of years. For any advice contact our expert teams on 01753 889995 or emailenquiries@bpcollins.co.uk
