2020 Women to Watch: Elizabeth Carbonaro
Posted On: Dec. 2, 2020 12:00 AM CST
Elizabeth Carbonaro
Regional managing director, global captive practice-Western Europe
Willis Towers Watson PLC
Floriana, Malta
Age: 52
Growing up in Malta, Elizabeth Carbonaro always had a desire to travel and experience different cultures beyond the shores of the Mediterranean island.
After starting her career in finance in 1988 with then Price Waterhouse as a trainee accountant, she had the opportunity to move to the Luxembourg office in 1994 as an audit assistant manager.
“Moving to Luxembourg to me was a big challenge…You really have to fend for yourself,” Ms. Carbonaro said.
The experience of meeting and working with people of different nationalities in Luxembourg proved to be influential to her career in captive insurance.
After returning to Malta in 2000, she joined Middlesea Group as head of finance and eventually progressed to group chief financial officer before joining Willis Towers Watson PLC’s captive management practice in Malta in 2012.
“One of the things about captive management is it’s very diverse,” she said. From helping clients with feasibility studies as to whether a captive makes sense for them, to setting up the captive or company, “you’re always dealing with people and clients with different backgrounds, from different countries,” she said.
“It opens you up to a lot of cultures. Every day is not the same. That makes it interesting,” she added.
Her openness to new experiences and willingness to embrace opportunities has led her up the ranks at Willis Towers Watson. She is also chair of the Malta Insurance Managers Association, a position she has held for the past three years.
Hard work, dedication and the willingness to go the extra mile are the keys to her success, she said.
Ms. Carbonaro is extremely hard-working and conscientious, which accounts for her “rapid rise at Willis Towers Watson,” said business associate Paul Corver, group head of mergers and acquisitions at Randall & Quilter Investment Holdings Ltd.
“She was account manager when we first knew her, then head of the Malta practice and now is regional head of the global captive practice for Western Europe.”