Principal and Los Angeles Communication Line of Business Leader
Buck Consultants L.L.C.
Los Angeles
Age: 37
Kate Van Hulzen has been a financial writer and communications consultant for her entire professional career. Ms. Van Hulzen specializes in designing and implementing strategies to help corporations communicate their benefit programs. A customized communications campaign she developed for Northrop Grumman Corp. resulted in a significant increase in employees participating in the company’s 401(k) plan, as well as a big rise in the average contribution. Fluent in Spanish, Ms. Van Hulzen has helped clients communicate benefit plans for Spanish-speaking employees. She has earned several industry awards for her communications projects.
Advice to young women: "It is important to realize that all of us will make mistakes. What sets us apart is what we do about it when we find out we made a mistake."
Professional role model: "Many women have inspired me. One person in particular who especially inspired me was Christine Infante, who worked as a manager for another benefit consultant. We had a frank discussion to identify what skills I would need in order to reach my goals. She helped me to identify different types of projects and work assignments I should be involved in to develop those skills. Working with her was just an extraordinary experience. She really helped me to understand how to develop a career plan for myself and how to achieve that."
Best professional advice: "Know where you want to go and develop a strategy that will help get you there. You need an idea of what you want to achieve and then you need to identify the steps to help get you there. I leaned that from Christine and other women I have worked with over the years."
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.