McKeel Hagerty

40 years ago, the Hagerty family started a hobby-focused specialist insurance company from its basement. It's grown a bit

- James Elliott

THERE IS SOMETHING rather zen about McKeel Hagerty, an air of pensive calm that suggests deep thought, reflection and divine equilibrium. It will come as no shock later in the interview when he reveals that he came close to taking religious orders, but for now he is chuckling at the accusation that he might be taking this video call in a hotel suite or some labyrinthine office at the centre of his sprawling Traverse City, Michigan, classic car empire, when it is 'just' his home office.

Having turned away from a future of piety in the Russian Orthodox Church, he instead finds himself commanding a business the scale of which has never before been seen in the classic car industry, a lifestyle brand that straddles insurance, an auction house and more. The conglomerate now owns and runs a host of events, from The Amelia in Florida to the Festival of the Unexceptional in the UK (this year celebrating its tenth anniversary) via RADwood. It owns Broad Arrow Auctions; the industry-standard price guide; and generates enough market data to power SpaceX.

At the heart of it, though, is the insurance company, one that this year is celebrating its 40th anniversary. The stats: in the US, Hagerty insures 2.4million collector cars and has a drivers' club with some 830,000 members, akin to the entire stock of historic vehicles in the UK, plus a YouTube channel with over three million subscribers. It employs 1600 staff in four countries.