Spotlight on Charley Wright: Guiding the next phase of Whitespace’s digital marketplace evolution

Charley Wright has stepped into the role of Solution Director for Placement at a pivotal moment for the Whitespace Platform and for the market’s broader digital transformation journey. With nearly five years spent working closely with brokers, underwriters and system owners across the specialty ecosystem, Charley brings a grounded understanding of what customers need from digital placement, structured data, and interoperable systems, and how those needs have rapidly evolved.

Charley’s experience at Whitespace began on the frontline as an Account Manager, working side by side with customers to support adoption, gather feedback, and translate day-to-day challenges into product improvements.

He describes the process of seeing a client request travel through analysis, design, engineering, testing, and ultimately into live use as a real thrill, especially as more functionality has been developed to support genuinely digital contracts rather than static documents.

During his tenure, he has witnessed a dramatic shift.

"There is no longer a debate about whether organisations should get on the data first train. The question now is how quickly they can reach a truly digital marketplace. That change has completely transformed our customer conversations, first in London and now increasingly around the world."

Stepping into the Solution Director role, Charley sees significant opportunities to build on the amazing progress made over the last few years and help the market accelerate toward digital maturity, across multiple insurance and reinsurance hubs globally.

Whitespace customers are now more aware of the value of digital fidelity, structured data capture, and API driven workflows than ever before. Charley’s focus is to support that momentum through continued enhancements in areas such as:

• Dynamic contract building
• Rapid, assisted data tagging
• Process automation and workflow streamlining, including appetite matching
• Digital quoting, endorsing, and cross-party collaboration
• Expanding Whitespace’s connectivity to complement existing investment by customers in other key systems

"We want to play a fundamental role in modernising the industry globally, one piece of structured data at a time."

Charley’s path through the specialty market has given him a blend of experience that now proves incredibly valuable.

He began his career in Project Management, developing the organisational discipline he now applies when uniting ideas from across the business and aligning them to the platform’s long-term vision.

Before joining Whitespace, he spent just short of three years at a fintech working with a data driven platform for the banking sector. This helped him develop the ability to translate technical concepts into real world stakeholder value, something that became crucial in his time leading Account Management.

And while he avoids overused claims about teamwork, he is clear about its importance:

"Working across Whitespace and VSBS has reinforced how much stronger solutions are when they are shaped collaboratively. Understanding the challenges people face, both customers and colleagues, leads to better decision making and better products."

Returning to the specialty market after time in fintech was eye opening. The industry had a long way to go in terms of system connectivity and API enablement. But in recent years, Charley has seen the market move past the misconception that an electronic document ‘on-screen’ equates to digital trading.

Today, there is a far broader recognition that capturing structured data early in the lifecycle unlocks huge value for brokers, underwriters, clients, and downstream operations.

He believes the next major shift will focus on capability building:

"As organisations invest in digital literacy and support their teams in becoming experts in digital contracts and portfolios, they will unlock some incredible benefits. An engaged and confident workforce is a powerful catalyst for transformation."

As he steps into the wider Solutions leadership team, Charley is energised by the chance to collaborate more closely with colleagues across Pricing, Underwriting, Broking, and Marketplace Solutions.

"There are some exciting cross-solution initiatives already underway, all powered by structured risk data. Being part of a high performing team is motivating, and I am looking forward to what we can achieve together with our customers."

Away from Whitespace, Charley maintains a busy sporting life. He is approaching his 30th consecutive year of playing field hockey, a sport that has shaped much of his personal life, including meeting his wife.

He also enjoys cycling, golf, and running in all conditions. When he is not on the move, he often attends live music or comedy events. More recently, most of his reading time has been devoted to Julia Donaldson books with his son, the Snail and the Whale a household favourite!