10 December 2025NewsInsurance

Leaders Under 40: Virginia Mathurin

Today’s emerging leaders, immersed in a sector evolving at remarkable speed, are redefining not only how insurance operates, but what a modern, meaningful career in the industry can look like.

For Intelligent Insurer’s Leaders Under 40 series, we spoke to Virginia Mathurin, managing director, property underwriting, Markel Personal Lines. From personal growth to industry innovation, she explained how the next generation is helping shape the continued transformation of the market. (Click here to watch the full interview)

“It was really evident that Markel wanted to invest a lot in young talent.”

Mathurin’s route into insurance began in a place few underwriters can claim: knee-deep in the swamps of Virginia. She joked that the real catalyst for her career was “snakes and spiders”, recalling her early work in wetland consulting during summers and winters while studying environmental science. “I was in the swamps in full waders, covered in DEET spray, spiders all over my face and with my socks taped in my pants so ticks couldn't get in,” she said. Watching snakes glide past, she realised this wasn’t going to be a long-term career for her (and she also wanted some air-conditioning).

“I love the balance between the technical side and the human side of underwriting.”

From the moment she joined Markel in 2014 as part of its nine-month underwriting training programme, Mathurin saw just how broad the profession could be. The rotation exposed her to underwriting, claims, marketing and actuarial finance. “It was really evident that Markel wanted to invest a lot in young talent,” she said. That breadth of opportunity, and a culture built around developing people, has kept her at Markel for 11 years.

For Mathurin, the best part of underwriting is its variety. “I love the balance between the technical side and the human side of underwriting. If it was just one or the other, I wouldn't enjoy it as much,” she explained. On the technical side, the shift from spreadsheets and Google searches to today’s AI-driven modelling tools has transformed the discipline, while the sales and relationship side “has really stayed the same, in the best way”. Underwriting still relies on meeting partners, building relationships and, as she described it, “making new friends”.

From a broader career perspective, trust has been a defining feature, and Markel pushes decision-making responsibility deep into the organisation. Mathurin remembered pitching a “Markel shark tank” initiative just six months into her career. The idea was green-lit almost immediately, resources were assigned and she was told to run with it. “It’s such a good example of what Markel does,” she noted; empowering people with ideas rather than gatekeeping them.

While many colleagues developed deep expertise in specific lines, Mathurin’s career has zigzagged across four teams and more than a dozen products. This sometimes left her envious of peers with deep subject knowledge, but she now sees the variety as a major asset.

Having worked across admitted and non-admitted business, personal and commercial lines, primary and excess, binding, brokerage, program distribution, insurtech, wholesale and retail, she feels “versatile and well-rounded”, and has learnt overall that “insurance is insurance”. Core underwriting principles anchor everything, no matter the product.

Her ambitions are simple but demanding: to keep learning and keep building. She wants to build successful products, strong teams and opportunities for others. How she plans to achieve this ties back to Markel’s distinctive culture. Mathurin lives by the ‘Markel style’: a “zealous pursuit of excellence”, a sense of humour and honesty and fairness in all dealings.

Her motivation to learn is rooted partly in curiosity, but even more in competitiveness. “I want to win. I want to be the best,” she stated. Not having an insurance degree pushed her to earn her Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter qualification in nine months and later to complete an MBA through evening and weekend classes to ensure she wasn’t “missing some kernel of knowledge”.

Mathurin firmly believes younger professionals already influence the industry’s direction, and her advice is simple: “Say yes to everything”. She pointed to how an informal ‘Lunch with Leaders’ session among young Markel employees evolved into the Markel Women’s Network, and then into a series of employee resource groups across the organisation. “Small actions can create big outcomes,” she said.

Mathurin cited multiple Markel leaders as role models, such as Jeff May, Alex Martin, Bryan Sanders and Wendy Houser, ranging from what she described as calm, logical thinkers to inspiring communicators and leaders who put people first. Her own goals are straightforward: to be authentic and to remain grateful. “I love my job. I love what I do,” she concluded. “I just hope I keep waking up every day feeling grateful and knowing how lucky I am.”

Click here to watch the full interview: