LISA HAWKER
Hylant Group Inc. Reprints
Vp, Employee Benefits
Hylant Group Inc.
Toledo, Ohio
Age: 34
Among the industry’s younger leaders and mentors stands Lisa Hawker. As a client and relationship manager at Hylant Group Inc.’s benefits practice, Ms. Hawker is responsible for overall client management, strategic planning, plan design and contribution analysis, program recommendations and implementation, and plan performance. Serving as a benefits liaison for the large-accounts practice within Hylant, she’s in charge of providing product and skills training while mentoring new client executives. In addition to her work at Hylant, Ms. Hawker is a speaker for benefits issues for a number of organizations including the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Worldwide Employee Benefits Network. In the past two years, Ms. Hawker received one of Hylant’s most prestigious annual awards, the Chairman’s Club Award for being one of the top five to 10 producers in a company with nearly 300 producers. So far this year, Ms. Hawker has received several nominations for the company’s 20 under 40 Award.
Early aspirations: "No one plans to be in the insurance industry. My degree in college is in biology. I was going to be a veterinarian or a biologist. I am a tree-hugger to the core. My husband, whose father was in the business, pushed me into this and I love it. He knew I’d be good at it."
Professional role model: "My father-in-law has been a huge professional role model for me. I worked for him in my first job in the insurance industry. He taught me what it is like to be a professional and a strong technician in your field. He taught be not to get involved in the political or the other negative things that come up in our industry."
What would you change: "I would like to change our reputation, more of the perception of our industry. We often get labeled into this sales role and we lose the professional advisor piece."
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2007 Women to Watch
Business Insurance's "Women to Watch" feature is our attempt to identify some of the women who are doing outstanding work in commercial insurance, risk management, employee benefits and related fields.
