10 December 2025NewsInsurance

Leaders Under 40: Olivia Barder

In a market grappling with talent scarcity, one young leader has a suggestion: stop prioritising experience and start hiring for potential. For Olivia Barder, group chief operating officer of AM Specialty Insurance Group, curiosity and transferable skills matter more than long tenure when it comes to building the next generation of industry talent.

As part of Intelligent Insurer’s Leaders Under 40 series, Barder reflects on what brought her into the market, how she has shaped her leadership style, and why mindset—not years in the job—will define the future of insurance careers. (Click here to watch the full interview)

Trained as a lawyer in New York and recently relocated from Dallas to London, Barder “fell into insurance in the best way possible”, joining her family in the industry and realising how dynamic a private organisation could be.

“We prioritise transferable skills over prior insurance experience.”

Over time, she found her strengths in operations, “shaping structure around CEO’s vision, building systems at scale, and ensuring an organisation can execute at pace”. She stays energised by seeing the tangible impact of the work. “I get to see what my work does on a day-to-day basis. I’m so energised by watching our group grow,” she said.

AM Specialty’s expansion from its US carrier launch in 2021 to its MGA acquisition in 2024 and UK build-out in 2025 has been formative. Barder explained that playing a central role in governance, hiring, infrastructure and office establishment demanded resilience and clarity, and continues to motivate her.

A defining theme in her development has been learning to lead through uncertainty. As COO, “I’m often handed challenges without an answer,” she explained. Over time, she has learned to trust intuition, pause, reflect and design practical pathways, even when the route ahead is unclear. Working in a privately-owned group has also required range: “We wear lots of different hats here, often outside a formal remit.” That adaptability has shaped both confidence and resilience.

Talent, however, is where Barder’s views become most pointed. At AM Specialty, “we really do not focus on prior insurance experience, we prioritise transferable skills,” she said. Strong team mentality, clear communication and initiative matter far more than traditional credentials. The company works in-person five days a week, and having the right people, she says, makes the environment “uplifting rather than burdensome”.

For the industry more broadly, Barder believes a continued bias toward hiring only those with prior experience is restricting progress. “It creates a barrier to entry for people who could excel in the sector but do not necessarily fit the traditional profile,” she argued. Hiring for potential, however, produces stronger long-term outcomes, particularly when fresh perspectives are combined with appetite to learn. “The technical side can be learned on the go. What’s harder to teach is mindset, work ethic and the ability to collaborate,” she said.

Her own leadership influence comes through clearly in how she has approached organisational culture. When launching the US carrier, she introduced a formal bi-annual review process to create consistency. “The aim was simple, to make sure every department is aligned with our goals,” she shared. Building stakeholder support mattered, but so did ensuring the framework avoided bureaucracy. The result, she believes, is a system that strengthens accountability across the group.

On innovation, Barder favours precision over reinvention. “The biggest opportunity is in using technology to enhance what we already do well,” she said. AI agents now help improve speed, insight and data quality for underwriters without replacing expertise. Technology, in her view, should be an accelerator, not a distraction.

Looking ahead, she anticipates major disruption driven by new technology and demographic shifts. “Seeing who can get through what’s coming and deploy these technologies in a meaningful and sustainable way is going to be very interesting,” she said.

Her move to London has been a personal investment in development: “The London market moves very quickly, and being immersed in that environment has kept me very curious.” Exposure to brokers, regulators, insurtech networks and market nuance has sharpened her perspective. Staying relevant, she believes, comes from remaining open-minded and listening closely—not just at work but everywhere, because “everything around us is always changing”.

For young professionals, her guidance is simple: “Focus on being useful in any way you can.” Progress comes from taking responsibility, contributing beyond narrow roles and building trust. “If you make yourself indispensable and people can rely on you, the opportunity will naturally follow.”

Click here to watch the full interview: