Zemfira Knott brings over 25 years of management experience, including many years in the nuclear insurance industry. As one of Northcourt’s founding members, she leads strategic business development, manage global stakeholder relations with clients, insurers, brokers, governments, and regulators, and oversees the company’s day-to-day operations. Zemfira is also a regular speaker at various nuclear conferences, representing Northcourt in the UK and overseas.

Previously, Zemfira worked as a Business Manager for Northcourt’s parent company, operating in London and Washington, DC. In this role, she contributed to high-profile energy sector projects, offering strategic advisory services to top management of several large multinational companies. To address geopolitical issues, her work often involved close collaboration with 10 Downing Street, Members of Parliament, and UK Embassies worldwide.

Zemfira’s recent academic pursuits include studies in Business Analytics, Economics, and Negotiation at Harvard Business School and in April 2024, she completed her executive education at the Cambridge University Judge Business School, earning a General Management Certificate of Achievement.

Recognised for her contributions, Zemfira was shortlisted for “Elite Women 2023” by Insurance Business UK and was highly commended in the “MGA Professional of the Year” category at the 2023 Women in Insurance Awards.

Zemfira is an active member of the International Nuclear Law Association and Women in Nuclear UK where she supports the Non-Executive Director programme designed to support women to enter Board level positions.

Adrian joined the underwriting team of Northcourt in May 2017 after over 35 years working on the broking side of the insurance industry the last 13 of which focused primarily on nuclear insurance. His knowledge of and contacts in that field qualify him to work alongside the members of the insurance panel of Northcourt and the brokers involved in the placement of the binders.

After starting his career with Sedgwick in 1981, Adrian joined Alexander Howden in 1994 where he was responsible for a team dealing with all processing aspects of the more complicated placements across the combined Marine, Energy, Power and Construction Business Units.

He transferred to the Aon Power Business Unit in 2004 at which time he became involved with nuclear insurance as a key member of the team handling the reinsurance programme for European nuclear mutual EMANI.

At time of leaving Aon, Adrian was Global Account Director for EMANI, working with colleagues in London and Brussels on all stages of the process from programme design through placement of the reinsurances to production and issuance of documentation.

He was also responsible for co-ordinating all technical and servicing aspects of a portfolio of other nuclear accounts and was a member of the Aon Core Global Nuclear Team.

Alongside his account responsibilities, Adrian also undertook quality control and audit checks across the Power Business Unit within Aon to ensure compliance with both internal and external regulatory requirements. He also acted as authorised signatory for documentation issued to clients and insurers.

He will continue to perform these tasks at Northcourt alongside his primary role.

David Mincher has been involved in nuclear engineering for nearly 40 years, initially with the Royal Navy and then with the civil nuclear generating industry.

David’s naval career started with an artificer apprenticeship and culminated in the role of Marine Engineering Officer (Senior Engineer and Head of Department) in one of the UK’s Trident ballistic missile submarines. Over the course of his 24-year naval career he held diverse engineering appointments in surface ships and nuclear submarines as well as an extensive period in a training and assessment role.

On leaving the Royal Navy David joined the UK’s civil nuclear industry firstly in the role of Internal Regulator at Dungeness B before moving to an operational role at Sizewell B. Having qualified as the Reactor Operator, he advanced to the position of Control Room Supervisor (SRO) and then to the senior operational role of Shift Manager, a position he held for 7 years before joining Northcourt in early 2020.

As the company’s nuclear engineer and risk assessor, David has undertaken risk surveys globally on many diverse types of nuclear generating station as well as research reactors, laboratories, enrichment plants and nuclear waste sites. In addition, he is the company’s technical advisor and provides training on a range of nuclear-related topics. He is a Chartered Engineer, and Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.

Ed has nearly 40 years of experience leading and delivering high value outcomes in extremely challenging environments, both commercially and in the military. Since 2016, he has been a Senior Independent Advisor to the licensee Board of EDF Energy Generation, the operating company for UK’s nuclear industry, advising the management team on nuclear safety, security and strategy matters. He is also a senior advisor and co-builder with Gallos Technologies which invests in security technology companies.

Ed has comprehensive experience of managing and dealing with all types of intelligence, political and malicious risk, confrontation analysis, complex project management, business development and resource allocation. He has been part of the leadership team that built two successful consultancy businesses and spent 7 years as Chief Resilience Officer at Pool Re, the Government backed terrorism reinsurance scheme. He was privileged to command 22 SAS over 9/11 and led British forces in Afghanistan in 2006. Ed has been formally recognised by His Majesty's Government on six occasions for his service to the nation.

Mark has extensive underwriting and broking experience, predominantly in Lloyd’s as well as insurance advisory experience in the wider nuclear sector.
Mark is recognised as a leading expert in the nuclear insurance field.

Before joining Northcourt in 2021, Mark was Director of Underwriting Strategy at Occam Underwriting, a London insurance underwriting agency and prior to that Managing Director of the Power, Nuclear and Construction division at Lloyd’s insurance broker Price Forbes and Partners.

Between 2001 and 2014 Mark was managing director of the UK’s nuclear insurance pool, Nuclear Risk Insurers Ltd. Whilst at the pool Mark worked on assisting the government with changes to the statutory nuclear liability legislation required by amendments to the 2004 Paris Convention and developed nuclear insurance programmes for Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Bulgaria and China.

Before joining the pool, Mark was an underwriter at Lloyd’s for the Nuclear Syndicate and for a Political Risks venture. He also held other underwriting positions at Lloyd’s including as a founding director of the Lloyd’s market ventures in Japan and China.

Mark has also been an expert representative of the international nuclear insurance industry at the Nuclear Law Committee of OECD’s Nuclear Energy Agency in Paris and has been a lecturer at the OECD’s International School of Nuclear Law since 2004. In 2020 Mark completed an in-depth study for the European Commission on the insurance, private and financial markets in the field of nuclear third-party liability

Olga joined Northcourt team in 2018 as a part-time administrator providing key operational support for all business activities undertaken by the Northcourt team before progressing to the role of underwriting assistant in which she supports the underwriting team by reviewing submissions, liaising with insureds and panel members regarding new and renewal business, preparing and issuing documentation and actioning any requests received for changes in coverage as well as continuing to provide operational support to the wider Northcourt team. Olga is currently studying for a Diploma with the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII).