b'78 Hed ask about broking and the industry in general.Soon after, Sophat and Chantol spent time in Adelaide, He was always keen to learn. One day he contactedlearning the MGA ropes before opening for business. me and said he was leaving Forte to set up a businessThe new venture ticked several boxes for John: it gave with his friend, Meas Sophat, Fortes former chiefMGA a foothold in Asia, provided a test case for the underwriter. Sophat wanted me to go into partnershipgroups services in a vastly different environment,with them. and underlined his belief that entrepreneurshipcan improve lives in developing countries. John appreciated the duos entrepreneurial spark.He flew to Cambodia to discuss their proposal, John says the main difference between the Phnom but with a twist. He asked them to join MGA.Penh office and those in Australia is cultural. Cambodia is a former communist country that continues to have After some initial reluctance, they agreed. There wasa highly regulated economy. Setting up the office was one small French broker who had a license and waschallenging, but once all the details around compliance doing specialist expat stuff. I said, Lets be the firstand other legalities were sorted out, it was just like any general insurance broker in the country. other MGA office. They plugged into our system here. We treated it just like another branch office. AbovePhnom Penh office.'