Earlier years
Before embarking on a career in insurance, James’ first few years in full-time employment were in HR and HRD roles within the Office of the Prime Minister, engaged in recruitment, promotions, conflict management, training needs analysis and training delivery. Involvement in training continued even after James joined insurance and in 1990-1, he successfully concluded the Certificate in Training leading to associateship of the UK Institute of Training and Development, now the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (https://www.cipd.co.uk/)
Insurance & Risk Management Education
After completing his exams leading to Associateship and Fellowship of the Chartered Insurance Institute and the Institute of Risk Management, James started lecturing insurance and risk management at the, then Mediterranean Insurance Training Centre (now MITC, https://www.mitcentre.com/) on a visiting basis between 1994 and 1998.
In 1998, James assumed a fulltime role of Trainer and Consultant at the Bahrain Institute of Banking and Finance (https://www.bibf.com/) spearheading insurance and risk management training and consulting in the Middle East and strengthening CII accreditation for BIBF’s insurance courses. He also rolled out a Certificate in Risk Management that was then accredited by the UK Institute of Risk Management.
Between 2002 and 2005, James assumed the role of MITC’s first CEO (https://www.mitcentre.com/) at a critical time for the centre when ownership was being transferred from private entities to the Malta Financial Services Authority.
In addition to overseas training and consulting assignments, MITC have received participants from over 50 nationalities including but not limited to Albania, Bahamas, Barbados, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bulgaria, Burma, Brunei, Cayman Islands, Christmas Islands, Cyprus, Domenica, Egypt, Gambia, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, Hungary, India, Italy, Jordan, Kiribati, Kosovo, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Macedonia, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritius, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Sudan, Slovenia, Sri Lanka, St. Lucia, Swaziland, Trinadad & Tobago, Tonga, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States of America, West Indies and Zambia.
MITC also provided annual insurance training under the auspices of the Commonwealth Secretariat and ran courses for the following accredited institutes or represented:
- Chartered Insurance Institute
- Institute of Risk Management
- Institute of Arbitrators
- Institute of Actuaries
- Chartered Institute of Securities & Investment
- Institute of Sales and Marketing Management
- Chartered Institute of Accountants
After leaving MITC and returning to the Middle East, during a period of fulltime employment in technical and executive management roles, James maintained involvement in training, research and development.
In 2008, the Chartered Insurance Institute (UK) awarded him a discretionary Morgan Owen Prize for his dissertation ‘INVIS Exchange’ on the creation of a hybrid financial exchange in the Middle East. (https://www.cii.co.uk/about-us/initiatives/engagement/awards/the-morgan-owen-essay-competition/)
During his stint in the Middle East, until 2015, James was also the Middle East ccoordinator of the Middle East Special Interest Group for the UK Institute of Risk Management and delivered training, on a visiting basis, on behalf of MITC and GII.
Since 2015
Since returning to Malta in 2015 James lectures insurance and risk management at the University of Malta on a visiting basis and assists other training institutes, such as BIBF, on a consulting basis.