strong-woman
10 August 2015 Insurance

Breaking through the glass ceiling: profiles

A snapshot of influential women profiled. For all 100 profiles, please visit: ww.intelligentinsurer.com

Inga Beale

Job title: Chief executive officer

Company: Lloyd’s

Career path

2014: CEO, Lloyd’s

2012: Group CEO, Canopius Group

2009: Global chief underwriting officer, Zurich Financial Services

2008: Head of M&A and organisational transformation, Zurich Financial Services

2006: Group CEO, Converium

What has been the highlight of your career so far?

I know many people would expect me to say my appointment as CEO of Lloyd’s but I don’t want to pre-judge what we are trying to achieve here. I think my time working at Converium in Switzerland has been my proudest moment so far. When I was appointed Group CEO there was a lot of hard work to do before selling it on to SCOR, but we achieved a fantastic outcome for the organisation and for clients.

What has been the biggest challenge you have encountered?

The biggest challenge is always the next one. We all know that there are a number of different pressures facing the insurance industry right now, like low interest rates and an influx of capital putting pressure on prices. Lloyd’s posted an excellent set of results in 2015, but we need to continue to innovate, modernise the market and maintain robust oversight to weather these challenges.

Monica Cramér Manhem

Job title: Chief executive officer

Company: Sirius International Insurance Corporation

Career path

1985: Joined Sirius International

What has been the highlight of your career so far?

The transition to president and CEO of Sirius International has definitely been the highlight of my career and the most exciting challenge I have taken on.

What has been the biggest challenge you have encountered?

Professionally there have been many challenges over the years but the biggest challenge will always be the one you haven’t experienced yet.

What are your career aspirations now?

To continue to strengthen the successful Sirius brand with owners and clients alike and grow the company profitably in a challenging market environment.

Cathryn Curia

Job title: Managing director, North American property reinsurance

Company: Markel Global Reinsurance

Career path

2013: Managing director, North American property reinsurance, Markel

2005: Joined Max Re

2002: Executive vice president, Platinum Re

2001: Executive vice president, St Paul Re

1983: Joined St Paul Re

1969: Secretary, reinsurance, Atlantic Mutual Insurance

Why did you choose to work in this industry initially?

I was planning to enter US government work in Washington DC upon my graduation from college. But in order to have a back-up plan, I met with several companies, one being an insurance company at a symposium. The HR director of the insurance company was dynamic in explaining to me how no entity in the US could exist without insurance, and how varied the options were in insurance. Atlantic Mutual offered me the opportunity as their first woman trainee, and at a better salary than government, so I entered Atlantic’s training programme.

What has been the highlight of your career so far?

One highlight was participating in a re-engineering team at St Paul Re for several months. It took me out of my underwriting role and provided me with the opportunity to participate with senior management in the restructuring of our operations and to then be part of the leadership of implementing significant changes in underwriting, marketing and customer service.

Laura Taylor

Job title: Principal

Company: Nephila Capital

Career path

2006: Principal, Nephila Capital

2004: Chief operations officer, Nephila Capital

Why did you choose to work in this industry initially?

My background is actually in hedge funds and banking, not reinsurance. Nephila was the first example of a hybrid between hedge funds (my background) and reinsurance (the core financial services business of Bermuda), which was interesting to me. Nonetheless, when I had the opportunity to join Nephila the decision was less about the industry and more about the opportunity to join a great team and be a part of building a business.

What has been the biggest challenge you have encountered?

I joined the firm in 2004, and obviously 2005 was a dramatic year to be in the reinsurance business. Being at a smaller company, weathering three hurricanes, paying meaningful claims to cedants, working with existing investors to make sure they were up to date and new investors seeking to enter the market to address the dislocation—it was a challenging time.

But that experience proved the viability of the business model, and being battle-tested now means we are a much stronger organisation than others who have never had that experience.

Four in focus

Four women from Aon Benfield are featured in our 100 Women in Re/insurance list. Here is a snapshot.

Maggie Westdale is the chief financial officer at Aon Benfield, having joined the company in 2009. Prior to joining Aon Benfield, she spent 10 years at CNA in a number of senior finance roles. Her most recent roles included senior vice president, corporate financial planning and analysis, and also as the internal CFO for CNA’s property casualty operations.

Westdale says that the highlight of her career is not one single moment, but the talented people she has had the pleasure to work with along the way.

“People are my favourite part of the job and building strong working relationships is the biggest challenge, but also the most rewarding achievement,” she says.

“Learning to work and communicate effectively across all groups in a complex, matrixed organisation such as Aon Benfield is very important, as well as having the ability to create value across diverse physical locations and cultures, and ultimately to bridge what are sometimes competing priorities.

“To do this with apparent seamlessness takes no small effort. But when it works and we all come together to serve our clients and our shareholders, my pride in Aon and our team overflows.”

Jackie Bolig is a senior managing director at Aon Benfield US. Prior to joining Aon Benfield, she had worked for Aon Risk Solutions, and before that, Alexander and Alexander (A&A) Baltimore.

Although working with the global marketplace, Bolig’s key focus is the US. Overall, she has 23+ years of retail expertise which she uses to facilitate dialogue and innovation between Aon’s retail and reinsurance operations.

Bolig’s primary focus during her tenure at Aon has been to design, market, place and maintain complex risk transfer programmes for some of the firm’s most valuable clients.

Upon entering the market, Bolig was offered a position in the risk management department of A&A, which later became Aon.

“I had two great female mentors and managers, who challenged and supported me as I grew in the role and advanced in the organisation. While stressing the importance of paying my dues with administrative responsibilities and developing my technical skills, they taught me to seek opportunities for projects outside of my core responsibilities to help me advance,” she says.

“I remember my manager advised me that it can often take time to receive recognition and be given a title, and that it was necessary to first prove that I was capable in the role. While that is not always true and I encourage young people to seek roles that stretch them when changing positions, it did teach me the value of patience, particularly when you are developing your signature skills.

“I found I loved the work at a time when most of my friends, in other industries, struggled to find interest and growth with their careers. It is now 23 years later and Aon continues to provide me with challenging roles and support in my career.”

Catherine Bourland, chief executive officer for Aon Benfield France, manages a 120-person team, overseeing all facets of the business.

Bourland has previously held positions at Le Blanc de Nicolay (acquired by Aon Corporation), Suys and Janssens, a reinsurance intermediary and a subsidiary of Le Blanc de Nicolay and La Licorne.

Bourland says that maintaining a motivated and enthusiastic team is one of her key responsibilities, and will be one of the most important issues over the coming years, along with several others.

“So far, challenges in my career have been working in a very innovative, dynamic and reactive business, approaching and understanding new ‘financial’ technology and the continuous improvement in client management excellence and practice.”

Kelly Smith is president at Aon Benfield US, and has been with the company since 1989, working her way up to her current role.

Prior to her role as president, Smith was executive managing director of Aon Benfield US, where she led client teams responsible for managing more US property catastrophe limits than any other team in the business.

Smith says that while challenges have varied at different stages of her career, prioritising clients’ needs to ensure they get the best of Aon is always in the forefront of her mind.

“The highlight of my career is all the opportunities that I have been given. I have travelled the world and worked with amazingly talented individuals, clients and colleagues, while having the stability of a wonderful job in order to raise my two sons.

“I have also been introduced to and given the opportunity to work with many charitable organisations, some of which have invited me to be a board member, and others that have just expanded my awareness. I feel it is important that we all find ways to give something back.”

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