Meg Allwein
Senior vice president and chief quality officer
Assurex Global Corp.
Columbus, Ohio
Age: 47

All the insurance world is a backstage for Meg Allwein, who is known among colleagues at one of the world’s largest privately held commercial insurance and risk management firms as a person who can create order out of chaos.

She said she learned that skill after college working backstage in the theater, a bustling job of helping to manage actors, sets, costumes and more, a place where drama can be double what is seen from the audience’s seats.

“All stage management, I would argue, is order out of chaos,” she said of her work with the Santa Fe Opera in New Mexico, a role she took on after graduating from Duke University with a degree in psychology.

The insurance world is equally dynamic and high-energy, she said of the business she discovered more than 20 years ago while starting out as a temp, answering phones at the front desk at Assurex Global Corp. She advanced by paying attention to opportunities and using what she knew to display her talents, always looking to add value to the business, she said.

“I have a pretty well-honed ability to take a large amount of information, discussions, dialogue, which can come from documents and reports, discussions on strategic planning … insights from others and distill it into something that is manageable, understandable and actionable,” she said. “When you have a lot of different ideas, different viewpoints on a topic or a situation that you are facing, you have to come out of it as a leader and come up with a way to move forward.”

At Assurex, Ms. Allwein oversees the development of strategic initiatives and solutions for 108 agencies and brokerages worldwide, manages day-to-day relationships with five large property/casualty insurers, oversees the mechanics and structure of corporate board meetings, leads the company’s strategic planning process, and is a strategic adviser to the company’s top suite of leaders.

Her best skill is communication, she said.

Jim Hackbarth, Columbus, Ohio-based president and CEO of Assurex Global, has worked alongside Ms. Allwein for 15 years.

“Meg embraces almost every project and challenge that is given to her with a passion, and she looks at everything with possibility,” he said. “She is one of those people you can trust with anything.”

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