ERGs of Tomorrow – Building Futures, Leveraging AI and Managing Risk
Ahead of the ERG Blueprint Conference 2026, and his appearance on the panel “ERG’s of Tomorrow – Building Futures, Leveraging AI and Managing Risk “, we sat down with Erik Johnson, Head of Technical Underwriting and Oversight, Markel Insurance to find out what it really takes to build an inclusion network, why human connection still outperforms algorithms a competitive technology driving employment market, and what UK ERG leaders can learn from watching the same challenges play out very differently around the world.
If you lead an ERG, sit on a committee, or are simply trying to work out what inclusion in financial services looks like in practice rather than on paper, this is a must-read interview. Here's what he told us.
You were there at the beginning for both Link and Inclusion@Lloyd's, helping to establish inclusion networks inside one of the world's most traditional markets. What does that experience tell you about what ERGs need to get right in their early years, and what should the next generation of ERG leaders be prepared for?
ERGs live or die on human connection. In a market like Lloyd's, progress didn't come from policies or statements. It came from people having conversations they hadn't had before, reaching out to colleagues they didn't already know, and creating spaces where individuals felt genuinely seen and supported.
When we started Link, the early events were deliberately informal. We collected business cards in a box and emailed people afterwards to build a list. From there, we considered a LinkedIn presence, a website, and a robust community. But what we quickly discovered was that a significant number of people weren't comfortable being visibly associated with an LGBT network. They might come along to a Link event, but they didn't want anyone else to know. In the early days, we spent about three years debating whether to keep the community behind a login on a distinct website, which was less visible than following our LinkedIn page. Eventually, we moved on from that, but it took time, and it was only possible because trust had been built.
What changed things was strategic visibility from senior leaders. Paul Jardine, who was Deputy Chairman of Lloyd's at the time, was profiled in a trade press piece about Link. Tom Bolt, who sat on the Lloyd's executive team, came along to a couple of events along with Matthew Fosh who was the CEO of Novae. Those small acts of support sent a signal that this was a legitimate, safe network with genuine industry backing. Once people could see that, they felt comfortable showing up, and more importantly, telling their peers that it was worth showing up to.
"People saw that senior leaders were coming along. They could show up at a Link event without any worry. That took a while. But it was how trust was built."
For the next generation of ERG leaders, the challenge is to maintain relevance as business and society evolve while keeping volunteers engaged. One thing I feel strongly about is that current ERG leaders have a responsibility to actively build the people who will carry things forward. And you can't do that through a newsletter requesting volunteers. In my experience, you rarely get someone putting their hand up to join a committee from a mass email. You must have a real connection with people, warm them up to the idea, take them for coffee, introduce them at events, and recognise what they're already contributing.
At in-person events, it matters too. You can always spot someone at an iCAN or Link event who has never been before. They're standing slightly outside things, not sure where to put themselves. That's when you need a committee member to walk over and say, come in, let me introduce you to someone. If you can get someone settled early, they engage. If you leave them on the outside, they leave. And then they don't come back.
AI is already reshaping underwriting, risk modelling and hiring decisions across financial services. From where you sit, how well are ERGs in the insurance sector equipped to engage with those changes, and what's at stake if they're not at the table?
I want to put a slightly different frame around this, because I think the most important thing ERGs can be doing right now with AI is not about how they use the technology internally. It's about helping their members understand how the hiring landscape is changing, and how human connection becomes more valuable as a result.
"You've got applicants looking for a job, any job, flooding recruiters, leaving recruiters to find the needle in the haystack applicant who has a real interest in the role and industry. In that world, the courage you get from being in an ERG, the ability to walk up to someone and make a real connection, becomes a powerful differentiator."
That is where ERGs become genuinely powerful. If someone comes to a Link or iCAN event and says they're looking to apply for an insurance role. I tell them, "Go to the iCAN and Link job-boards,” and I introduce them to an iCAN or Link volunteer at the event. Not because that will guarantee them a job, but because it proves they are a real person who has made a real effort to engage with the industry and differentiate themselves.
ERGs can demystify that process for the people who most need it, particularly those who don't naturally have access to informal networks. Helping people understand how to reach out on LinkedIn, how to follow up after an event, how to ask for an introduction, and how to mention a conversation they had with a professional from the company they are applying to in a cover letter has es a real impact.
These are small things that compound hugely over time. There are people in this industry who are capable, ambitious and motivated, but who never quite get the visibility they deserve because they don't understand how the system works.
You've operated across more than a dozen markets globally, Canada, Europe, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean and beyond. How much does cultural and regulatory context shape what an effective ERG looks like, and what can ERG leaders in the UK learn from how inclusion networks operate elsewhere in the world?
One thing is consistent everywhere: careers move forward through relationships. But how those relationships are built and what inclusion work looks like in practice vary more than most people realise.
Take something that seems straightforward, like event sponsorship. Here in London, it is entirely possible for an insurer to host an EDI event, with a broker as a co-sponsor, alongside a competing broker and an underwriter on the panel, despite market competition. That kind of collaboration happens routinely in the London market, and I think it is partly a product of the Lloyd's subscription model, where you can have multiple insurers on a single risk, and underwriters are genuinely used to working alongside their competitors.
In the US and Canada, this is less common. Sponsors tend to want exclusivity. They are not used to being on the same platform as a direct competitor. So even the mechanics of how you run and fund an EDI event look completely different.
The topics that resonate with members are different, too. Women in underwriting is a prominent focus in the London market. But when I look at some businesses I have worked in before, the majority of senior underwriting heads were women, but not always. Gender representation is a universal problem, but it differs by region. So, if you are designing events or campaigns for a global network, you cannot run the same programme everywhere and expect it to land.
"One size fits all does not work. And it is not just the topics. It is the conversation itself, what people are ready to hear, what they are ready to say out loud."
The framing of DEI conversations varies enormously depending on the legal and social frameworks in different countries. Something you might discuss openly in a London or Toronto office would need to be approached very differently in Singapore or Bermuda. And beyond that, there are markets where organisations genuinely believe they have inclusion cracked, or that the challenges others face simply do not apply to them. I have sat in rooms and heard that. And my experience is that everywhere has biases, hierarchies and marginalised groups. The difference is in each market’s willingness to face that.
Even the language does not always travel. In Canada, it is common practice for events to open with a land acknowledgement of indigenous nations and the reconciliation agenda. That is familiar in the Canadian context. If you tried to apply a direct equivalent here in London, you would lose the room entirely, because the history and the national conversation around it are fundamentally different. Equally, asking someone in a UK focused survey whether they attended a state school or a public school means something entirely different to a North American, where public school simply means the one down the street from where you grew up.
At Link, we have handled this by letting local committees set their own agendas. We coordinate and share from the centre, but we do not impose a single programme. The people on the ground know what their members need and what their sponsors are interested in. That principle, of trusting local knowledge and being willing to adapt rather than export a template, is probably the most transferable lesson I would offer to UK ERG leaders working across or learning from other markets.
Human Connection Still Matters Most
Erik Johnson will be speaking on the panel, ERGs of Tomorrow: Building Futures, Leveraging AI and Managing Risk, at the ERG Blueprint Conference 2026 on 28 April at the Leonardo Royal Hotel, London St Paul's.
What comes through most clearly in conversation with Erik is something that doesn't often make it into the DEI playbook: that the most consequential inclusion work is almost always quiet, personal, and unhurried. It's the committee member who crosses the room. The senior leader who shows up to an event. The person who hands someone a coffee and says, let me introduce you to someone.
In a market being reshaped by automation, where algorithms screen CVs, and AI submits applications at scale, Erik's argument is not that technology doesn't matter. It's that the human things matter more than ever, and that ERGs are uniquely placed to be the spaces where those human things still happen.
See the full panel discussion on 28th April at the ERG Blueprint Conference. We hope to see you there.
Join Us at the ERG Blueprint Conference 2026
Dr Vanessa Vallely OBE will deliver the keynote at the ERG Blueprint Conference 2026 on 28 April in London.
Expect an energising and thought-provoking session on influence, leadership and the future of employee networks.