Industry of opportunity
The risk transfer business remains a male-dominated industry although that is changing quickly. Instead of focusing on the lack of women in the industry, we instead focus on the talent that does exist—and how this pool is growing and maturing by the day.
For clarity on what this list means and what it represents, the 2017 research and profiles complement and add to the base of female talent we have previously identified in the years 2015 and 2016.
Therefore, while in the Class of 2017 we have identified and profiled 85 new women, this should be combined with the hundreds of executives we have profiled previously. What follows here is a selection of the 2017 profiles, with the full list on page 22. While we have previously restricted the list to female executives in re/insurers or brokers, we have loosened our criteria this year and included a selection of service providers and advisers working directly with the risk transfer industry.
In our digital version and on our website, you will find profiles of all the women from all years. We have done our best to update career paths but please contact us if you see anything that is incorrect.
Gender blindness
The executives profiled were asked questions about their careers so far, aspirations for the future and how they see the industry developing. It is noticeable this year that a change is starting to emerge in the nature of their answers relating to the difficulties they face.
Fewer answered this question in relation to the fact of being a woman in a male-dominated industry. More answered it in relation to the industry and the challenges it presents, ie, gender-neutral hurdles to jump.
Some however do note that being a woman can be a challenge.
Elisabeth Stadler, chief executive of Vienna Insurance Group for example, says she joined the industry because of her interest in mathematics. She has been very successful, now heading the leading insurance specialist in Austria and in Central and Eastern Europe with 50 companies in 25 countries and more than 20 million customers.
Despite all this, challenges remain. “Women in leadership position are rare,” she says, “so it is more difficult to convince people of your competence for a top position. You have to be favoured by fortune to take a chance at the right time.
“After a long-term career at my first insurance company where I was already a board member I got an offer to take over leadership as CEO of the subsidiary of an international German insurance group. This was an important step from being a member of the board to being the leader of the board.”
Others note the juggling act that can come when managing a career and family life. Hannah Purves, claims director at Markel International, joined the industry after a secondment with an insurer where she discovered she loved the interaction between insurers and insureds.
She notes that her recent appointment to the board made her the first female executive board member “but I know not the last”.
“I have three children who I want to have quality time with, and combining this with an industry that increasingly seems to be 24/7 can be a problem. That said, technology has helped in enabling working away from the office at times and employers have generally been increasingly tolerant/encouraging of flexible working,” she notes.
In some parts of the world it remains rare for women to hold senior positions.
Rana Hafda, executive director of facultative at Chedid Re, says: “Working in a relatively new field in the Middle East where the culture remains more conservative, breaking through to the top level was tough. I hope I can participate in leading the way for more women of our culture to undertake similar endeavours,” she says.
Other respondents suggest that this phenomenon is diminishing, and many focus on the demands of the job instead of their gender.
Stephanie Fucetola, senior vice president at CATEX, says she has never felt held back. “My being a woman and a mother has never clouded the opportunities available to me. I believe that if you value yourself and your co-workers, and work hard to reach goals, success is possible for anyone,” she says.
With a passion for maths, Fucetola says the leaps and bounds that were being made in technology and computing in the early 2000s captured her interest and led her to seek a position that could incorporate her interest in maths and technology.
Her biggest trial come on the job dealing with data. “The type of data, the amount of data, product nuances by country, and language character sets. Our goal is to build simple, innovative solutions to help our clients use the information from ‘big data’, to make better underwriting decisions,” she says.
Keeping up to date
Others answer in a similar way. Christine Ziehmann, vice president, model product management, Asia-Pacific at RMS, says that constantly updating products and models can be hard while innovating around what clients want.
“As with all high-tech products, catastrophe models have to undergo constant innovation to remain state of the art and incorporate the latest scientific advancements and data.
“The recent North America Earthquake model is an example. The daily challenge is to get the right balance between the model complexity needed to simulate the real world accurately on one side, and model performance and speed to market on the other,” she says.
Such direct industry-specific problems are echoed by Kara Raiguel, president and CEO of General Re Corporation. She too ended up in the industry because of a love of maths, which led her initially to work in the actuarial field.
“I enjoy the problem-solving aspect of the business. It requires a combination of maths and people skills to solve problems in our business. We are not just building spreadsheets; we work side-by-side with our clients to solve the known problems and help identify and think through those that they may not yet realise,” she says.
Raiguel adds that after joining the Berkshire Group of companies in 2001, which she describes as “a very special business culture”, she has led several acquisitions and startup opportunities that “taught me great lessons”.
“Being in the trenches gives you a window on many aspects of the insurance business that I’ve been able to draw upon in my current role at Gen Re.”
But, she says, her biggest task has been, like that of any male CEO, generating profitable growth. “Transitioning into my role as Gen Re’s CEO in the midst of the current market environment—figuring out how to navigate a large organisation efficiently, make good, quick decisions, and understand the impact on us and our clients—has been stimulating,” she says.
“I don’t want to lose the action orientation of a small company or overlook the benefits of the depth of connections in a company the size of Gen Re. Fortunately, they are not mutually exclusive. And I have the advantage of a world-class team of associates who are working every day to ensure that we can build and broaden mutually beneficial relationships with our clients.”
Click here to see the full list of profiled women and a sample of those profiled.
