40 female highflyers

The appointment of Inga Beale as Lloyd’s first female chief executive in January was a landmark for women in reinsurance—but men still hold the majority of the top jobs.

Intelligent Insurer asks why this is and has profiled 40 senior and influential women working in reinsurance or companies closely linked to this sector, in a special digital report. Here is a preview of the findings.

When Inga Beale took the top job at Lloyd’s in January 2014, John Nelson, chairman of Lloyd’s, summed up his delight that she had taken the position.

“She has 30 years’ experience in the insurance industry. Her CEO experience, underwriting background, international experience and operational skills, together with her knowledge of the market, make Inga the ideal chief executive for Lloyd’s. I very much look forward to working with her,” he said.

Lloyd’s’ wise choice, based on Beale’s excellent credentials, highlights the fact that a growing number of companies are breaking free from traditional recruitment processes that favour male-dominated networks. There is no doubt that Beale’s appointment will inspire other women with boardroom aspirations.

“Many women understand the level of sacrifice required to reach the top levels and just don’t want to make a choice to give up that much of the rest of their lives.” Lara Mowery

As Susan Zdroik, senior vice president and client manager for Munich Re and a member of the Association of Professional Insurance Women (APIW) board puts it: “Beale’s non-traditional path to the top is a shining example of diversity and encouragement to others not to give up on their career goals.”

But are women with similar levels of experience still failing to win the top jobs in reinsurance? It is now three years since the publication in the UK of Lord Davies’ report, Women on Boards, which stated that at the current rate it would take more than 70 years to achieve gender-balanced boardrooms in the UK.

Since then, according to data supplied by relationship capital analyst BoardEx in November 2013, the number of women directors in FTSE 100 companies has risen from 12.5 percent to 19 percent. The number of all-male boards has fallen from 21 to five and the proportion of women directors in FTSE 100 companies has risen from 7.8 to 15.1 percent.

Looking ahead

Clearly some progress has been made, and there are signs that the insurance industry is getting behind the drive to recruit more women at the top.

Elin Hurvenes, founder and chair of the Professional Boards Forum, which works to raise the number of women in boardroom roles in the UK and parts of Europe, cites the involvement of major insurers at the forum’s first event in Zurich in February 2014, as evidence. Swiss Re hosted the event; chairman Walter Kielholz spoke at the event and Zurich Insurance also participated.

“The banking business in the UK has really stepped up on the issue of women on boards and now it looks as though the insurance business is following suit,” says Hurvenes.

“Women need actively to support and promote one another, and they should not be afraid to take on ‘stretch positions’ that may be outside their comfort zone.” Theresa Schugel

She set up the Professional Boards Forum in 2003 following the Norwegian government’s 2002 drive for 40 percent women directors on company boards. The initiative was backed by tough legislation. Business communities and chairmen were outraged, claiming they did not know where, or how, to find qualified women.

Hurvenes agrees that this was a problem, partly because they were unlikely to find women in the places they traditionally looked for candidates.

“When I started the forum, board members were typically recruited from chairmen and investors and the CEO’s network of friends and business associates—if that’s where you recruit your non-executive directors (NEDs) from clearly there’s not going to be enough women,” she says.

“Traditional recruiting practices have definitely been an issue. In the UK, headhunters have used the same talent pool for NED roles as they have for executive roles and they have had a larger pool of men to choose from.”

A matter of desire

Another issue was that women were not putting themselves forward for the top roles. “Study after study shows that in order to achieve the career success desired, one needs to continuously make that desire known to others in an organisation or industry,” says Zdroik. “We (men and women) do ourselves a great disservice by thinking that these positions simply fall into a person’s lap.”

“It is so important that women promote their capabilities and interest in these board seats,” agrees Theresa Schugel, executive vice president of BMS. “Women need actively to support and promote one another, and they should not be afraid to take on ‘stretch positions’ that may be outside their comfort zone.”

One woman who has continued to surge to the top, gaining several once unobtainable positions, is Markel’s Peta White.

Following the merger of Markel and Alterra in 2013, White assumed the role of managing director, head of US property catastrophe reinsurance at Markel Global Reinsurance.
White, who has future plans to reach the role of chief underwriting officer, says that her most challenging experience was moving from Alterra to Ace Tempest Re to build a new book of international property cat business some years before.

“I moved from being on a team of three underwriters, having an existing large book of business, quoting programmes, leading most placements, putting down large lines, and having the ability to get wordings changed, to being the sole international underwriter, being a following market, putting down relatively small lines and struggling to get on placements as a new market,” she says.

“It was a humbling experience, but very rewarding. Building a profitable book of business from scratch was one of my biggest achievements.”

However, it has not been plain sailing, as a number of women currently in leading roles in reinsurance report having struggled to reconcile the demands of career and family life.

Lara Mowery, managing director, head of global property specialty at Guy Carpenter & Company, sums up the issue. “If married women who work take on significantly more home and childcare responsibilities than married men who work, as the data currently indicate, women either gradually fall behind or drop out altogether.

“Many women understand the level of sacrifice required to reach the top levels and just don’t want to make a choice to give up that much of the rest of their lives.”

To read the full digital supplement, which profiles 40 female industry leaders including Hardy’s Barbara Merry, Guy Carpenter’s Joan Lamm-Tennant, Tokio Solution Management’s Kathleen Faries and Munich Re America’s Pina Albo, register for a FREE digital subscription here.