2019 Women to Watch: Tracey Gibbons
Posted On: Dec. 2, 2019 12:00 AM CST
Tracey Gibbons
Senior vice president, underwriting
Third Point Re Co. Ltd.
Pembroke, Bermuda
Age: 59
When Tracey Gibbons began her insurance career in London, it was still very much a man’s world.
In the early 1980s, there were few women underwriters, “and they certainly weren’t in senior positions. I guess I was a little bit naive in not figuring that out and realizing it might make progression difficult,” said Ms. Gibbons, laughing.
But “I was extremely lucky to be in the right place in the right time,” she added.
An opportunity in 1986 led her to Bermuda for what she thought would be a two-year stint, and she has been there ever since.
Ms. Gibbons began underwriting local risks, but “there wasn’t a lot going on,” so after a couple of years she moved into captive management and then reinsurance. She joined Third Point Re Co. Ltd. in April after 16 years with Allied World Assurance Co. Ltd.
While Ms. Gibbons is proud of the success she has achieved, “the other thing I take great pride in is, from quite an early stage, I’ve mentored other women,” she said. She has also invited both men and women to shadow her on the job.
“It’s now getting to the stage where there are people I have had connections with in the past who are popping up in senior management positions. That’s wonderful,” she said. “It’s nice to think I played some small part in them getting where they are today. I take a lot of pride in that.”
“She’s done a fantastic job with young women,” said Fiona Luck, a nonexecutive director at Convex Group Ltd. in Bermuda, who has known Ms. Gibbons for more than 30 years. “She’s had a real impact in being a role model.”
Ms. Gibbons’ husband, Chris, is a semiretired journalist but is active in charitable work. “I don’t think I could have been as successful as I was in my career without the flexibility of a husband like Chris,” she said.
Her daughter Kayley, 19, is studying architecture at the University of Kent in Canterbury, England, and her son Toby, 17, is a high school junior in Connecticut.