2013 40 Under 40: Scott Kannry
Northeast Region Reprints
Vice president, financial services group
Aon P.L.C.
Age: 34
Scott Kannry's circuitous path to his current post at Aon P.L.C. began on a golf course.
During college, Mr. Kannry worked as a caddy master at a golf club near Chicago where several Aon senior executives were members. Mr. Kannry's innate curiosity and outgoing nature acquainted him with the executives and with the challenges and opportunities facing insurance brokers. After graduation, he earned a spot on Aon's professional cyber risk solutions team in 2003.
Mr. Kannry spent the next 51/2 years learning the business, but by 2008 he wanted to continue his education. While still serving a limited number of clients, he went to graduate school. By 2011, he had earned his JD-MBA from Northwestern University's School of Law and the Kellogg School of Management and subsequently passed the New York state bar exam. After a stint with a venture capital firm, he returned to Aon full time in October 2011 to lead its East Coast practice from the New York office.
“It was a nice reset on my career,” he said. “It gave me opportunities to open doors again and question whether I was in the right industry or not.”
The answer to that question is now a resounding “yes.”
Mr. Kannry manages 65 clients that contribute about $45 million in premium to the insurance marketplace and approximately $3 million of revenue to Aon.
Much of his focus remains on the area that he first tackled at Aon: cyber risk.
“It's an area of risk that has evolved so significantly since I started that it is now one of the most transformative risk exposures,” he said. “The insurance industry needs to find a better way to grapple with it.”
