STACEY REGAN
Posted On: Jul. 29, 2007 12:00 AM CST
Deputy Treasurer-Insurance
General Electric Co.
Fairfield, Conn.
Age: 41
Stacey Regan manages a world of risk at General Electric, which has operations ranging from jet engines to financial services to news and entertainment in more than 70 countries. In overseeing the company’s global risk and insurance programs, Ms. Regan is responsible for design, strategy, procurement and management. Ms. Regan, who became GE’s global risk manager in 2001, also has developed a contract guidance tool for managing risks as part of GE’s aggressive growth strategy; expanded GE’s captive, Electric Insurance Co., to cover risks in the European Union and Canada; and introduced benchmarking and process improvement programs with GE’s insurers and brokers to ensure that the company’s risk management and insurance programs are aligned with company objectives. In addition, Ms. Regan has co-led the Fairfield, Conn., hub of the GE Women’s Network, which helps women advance within the company and promotes collaboration on solutions across the GE’s various business units.
Best professional advice: "A former boss of Ms. Regan’s bearing no relation, Tom Regan, "told me that it’s great to think things through but to pay attention to your gut and what that’s telling you. I think in my instance, it’s helped me make the right decisions. One in particular was when I decided to leave Becton Dickinson to work for GE Capital. A few folks commented to me that it was not the right decision to make because I had such a great position and opportunity at Becton. I was the planned successor as the head of risk management at Becton. (But) I had the confidence to follow my instinct, and in retrospect, it is the best career path decision I have made."
Professional role model: "Probably over a 20-year career, I had different role models at different points. The one that influenced me most was one of my prior bosses, Tom Regan—no relation. This was at Becton Dickinson, a medical manufacturing company in New Jersey. He had a tremendous amount of confidence in my abilities when I was relatively young and starting out in my career and gave me confidence to stretch and tackle new things."
Early aspirations: "I was very interested in being a stockbroker. But living in New York and relying on commissions wasn’t going to work at a young age. I started as an underwriting trainee at Aetna back when Aetna was big in (property/casualty underwriting) right out of school. I started taking CPCU classes, and coincidentally, a recruiter called me about a risk management job. I really wasn’t aware of that profession until then and found it very interesting. I did take that job."