News and publications NewsInterview: co-owners Marijke van der Rest and Monique Reinek of Ship Insurance InternationalPublished: 18 June 2026Interview‘Insurers will never let you down.’ In this joint interview, we speak to the two co-owners of Ship Insurance International, a maritime broker where a personal approach is paramount. Based in the north of the Netherlands, Marijke van der Rest and Monique Reinek help their clients find the right marine insurance. Although the two have been working together in their firm for quite some time now, they actually come from very different backgrounds. Marijke van der Rest studied communications and information sciences in Groningen and, after graduating, went to work at her father’s estate agency. This where she first crossed paths with Monique Reinek, who had stumbled into the insurance industry by chance much earlier and has now been happily working in it for decades. The collaboration went so well that they decided to set up their own company together. Your father was also a broker. Was it only natural that you would end up in the same profession? Marijke: ‘No, not really. I was at university and looking for a job in my chosen field. Then my father said, “Why don’t you just come and work for me? I agreed and ended up staying. It’s lovely to see that more and more women are getting actively involved in the industry. This has a positive effect on the profession and on how it is perceived. Insurance has always been a conservative stronghold, but you can see that things are changing. I recently saw a photo of my father and his team from the early 1980s. All men in brown suits!’ Monique: ‘I only realised how wonderful the maritime sector was when I started working at Marine Insurance with Marijke’s father. That was back in 2008. I experienced there just how much passion there is in this industry. I actually started out in the typing pool back in the days of the brown suits and then went on to become an underwriter at an industri