Meet the Team: Muhammad Afifi
The team at AqualisBraemar share the passion, vision and values for working in energy and the world’s oceans, de-risking and driving the energy transition. We are driven by the idea that the best work is born from professionalism, diligence… and fun. You know AqualisBraemar, but do you know our team?
Muhammad Afifi, Senior Adjuster | Singapore
What do you do at AqualisBraemar?
I am a Senior Adjuster in AqualisBraemar’s Singapore office. My regular day job is to investigate and report on insurance claims in the Energy sector. These are typically high value and very technical in nature. As a graduate civil engineer with practical experience as an offshore transportation and installation engineer, often involving subsea pipelines, I am regularly appointed on offshore construction claims. Through personal studies and on the job training, I have gained the required knowledge of insurance policies and how they respond to a claim. My role may require attendance on-site to review damage or ongoing repairs. In the office, I spend time reviewing technical documents, evaluate and allocate damage repair cost against policy conditions. This work is then packaged for Insurer clients in detailed written reports that allow claims to be settled as promptly as possible.
What excites you the most about our industry?
Being instructed by Insurers and called out for deployment to investigate a new incident can be very exciting. Disaster sites have unique challenges that you don’t experience in the office, or typically in your day-to-day life. Attendance as an Adjuster following such event is not always easy, with Insurers wanting to know how much, while Insured’s want to know how to repair, quickly followed by when can we have the cheque? We don’t always have all the answers straight away, but I always keep myself independent and impartial while examining facts, sharing my professional opinion and considering the insurance conditions. I cannot always give them the news that they want to hear but with dialogue to explain our position and to listen to others’ points of view agreement is usually possible. Helping people get back on track after a loss and reaching an equitable settlement gives me much satisfaction.
What made you join AqualisBraemar?
When I was an offshore/subsea engineer, I was always looking forward to my offshore assignments, where life was simple, structured, and I considered offshore vessels or rigs as my ‘man cave’. The dress code was coveralls and the restaurant of choice, the ship’s galley. However, on completion of a typical onshore construction project, you can stand back and admire the finished structure. Subsea doesn’t have such a fringe benefit and my family never get to appreciate the engineering feats that I helped to achieve (my wife still think that I am a plumber after I told her I installed pipelines offshore). The continual build and move on to the next project also brings with it a toll of missing family and friends’ events, which can never be replaced. Moving to energy loss adjusting has allowed me to spend more time onshore, yet maintaining one foot in the industry that I enjoy. Working at AqualisBraemar, I can continue to develop as an adjuster, while surrounded by colleagues with extensive adjusting experience and having ready access to the wide variety of technical expertise available within the AqualisBraemar group.
What do you do when you are not working?
Outside of Adjusting, I am an adjunct lecturer at Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Malaysia. This is one of my contributions of service back to society where I try to bridge the gap between industry and academia.
Other than that, I am curious about history, especially that of the Austronesian people. This interest developed after I stumbled upon an article that identifies that the first person to have circumnavigated the globe, was a Malaysian, known as Enrique de Malacca. He served as the interpreter in Ferdinand Magellan’s expedition, during which he completed his circumnavigation ahead of the expedition.