2013 40 Under 40: Mike Owens
Southeast Region Reprints
Senior vice president
Willis of Louisiana Inc.
Age: 37
For Mike Owens being an insurance broker means far more than just securing coverage for clients.
“I don't just focus on the premium, but on the total cost of risk,” said Mr. Owens, senior vice president of Willis of Louisiana Inc. in New Orleans and head of Willis' New Orleans construction practice. “If I can get contractors to improve their bottom line by a half-percentage point to 1% by thinking through risk and using correct risk management techniques, then I am not viewed as an expense. I am viewed as an asset.”
Clients have responded enthusiastically to Mr. Owens' approach. From 2010 to 2011, his sales volume grew 63%, and another 6% from 2011 to 2012, while he maintained a 100% retention rate of clients. His performance earned Mr. Owens top sales honors for the past two years for Willis' Exceptional Producers Council, which recognizes Willis' top 100 producers nationwide.
His colleagues attribute Mr. Owens' success to two factors: meeting client needs and his construction industry expertise.
“He has an attitude that whatever it takes, we will get it done,” said Gray Holden, executive vice president and managing partner of Willis of Oklahoma Inc. in Oklahoma City.
“Clients view him as a trusted adviser who can take care of their interests. At the same time, he has developed a deep expertise of the construction industry and has built up a strong network of people to support him,” Mr. Holden said.
Mr. Owens' father was a safety director and risk manager for a construction engineering company. “I grew up in the construction insurance industry,” he says.
He later attended the University of Georgia, where he studied risk management. While in college, Mr. Owens held an internship with an insurance broker and “immediately fell in love” with the field.
