Women to Watch: 2006

April 07, 2009 Reprints

	Deborah Broderick Senior Vp Acordia Inc./Wells Fargo Insurance Services Chicago Age: 47 Deborah Broderick was recently elected a senior vp of Acordia--soon to be known as Wells Fargo Insurance Services--and is responsible for the operations and administration of the company. Her primary responsibilities include the execution of strategic goals and mergers and acquisitions for the company. Ms. Broderick was recently named to Wells Fargo's diversity council, which is working to enhance diversity across all lines of the company's business. Before joining Acordia in 1991, she was a certified public accountant for KPMG L.L.P. Q: What advice would you give young women entering the industry today? A: The insurance industry presents several good opportunities because there are so many business sectors to choose from, so young women should be flexible and willing to try jobs outside their original disciplines. "You have to be willing to make those leaps out of your comfort zones." Q: Who has had the greatest influence on your career and why? A: Many people opened doors when Ms. Broderick decided to try new responsibilities outside of her background, but the greatest influence on her career was her mother, who demanded that she set a high bar for herself. Q: If you had the ability to change one thing about the industry what would it be? A: The industry needs to remain externally focused rather than focusing on what happens within insurance organizations themselves. Looking for the best solutions for customers is the way the industry will succeed.

	Barbara C. Bufkin Senior Vp-Corporate Business Development Argonaut Group Inc. San Antonio Age: 51 Barbara C. Bufkin began her career in 1977 as a commercial underwriting trainee with the Travelers Insurance Co. She entered reinsurance in 1979 as a casualty facultative underwriter with American Re-Insurance Co., and the reinsurance intermediary business in 1981 with E.W. Blanch Co. She served as executive vp at Sedgwick Payne Co. until 1993, joining Swiss Re Services as an executive vp in 1995 before becoming director at Swiss Re New Markets. She joined Argonaut Group in 2001. Q: If you had the ability to change one thing about the industry what would it be? A: "I believe the insurance industry's ability to compete, attract and retain top undergraduate and graduate school talent will be the single most important driver of our industry. This will require reaching farther into the recruiting process, articulating the challenges and opportunities in the insurance/reinsurance industry and embracing the potential for true innovation." Q: What advice would you give young women entering the industry today? A: "I would advise young women as I would young men entering the industry, to become students of the business; to embrace the fundamentals of basic business acumen along with the technical aspects of our industry. I would advise them to seek out a mentor, remain aware of the external environment (social, political, human elements), be open to change, be prepared to give back to the community, treat your colleagues and subordinates the way you yourself would hope to be treated, allow your passion for the business and life to be visible, love what you do and remember to smile." Q: Who has had the greatest influence on your career and why? A: "The collective experience of working for some truly outstanding leaders and mentors and the highly talented teams of people I have had the opportunity to work with over the years have collectively had the greatest influence on my career. The diversity of thought, leadership style and disciplines allowed me to grow and learn the business. The women of Leadership Texas and Leadership America shared the experience of women leaders in business, education and public service and gave me vast perspective outside our industry. Over arching my professional career has been the inspiration of my family. Both my grandmothers, born in the early 1900s, were women not constrained by traditional mores, encouraging me to vigorously pursue education, career, an active role in community service and a family. Raising two sons has without question provided tremendous motivation to 'do it all.'"

	Monica M. Burmeister Global Benefits Practice Leader Hewitt Associates Inc. Lincolnshire, Ill. Age: 53 Monica M. Burmeister leads Hewitt's global benefits practice, comprised of about 2,000 associates in 35 countries. Ms. Burmeister, who has spent her entire professional career at Hewitt, has worked extensively with clients as the lead actuary on issues related to defined benefit plans, and as a consultant on merger and acquisition issues. She currently serves on Hewitt's leadership council. Q: What advice would you give young women entering the industry today? A: "You don't want to be too narrowly focused. You want to understand the breadth of employee benefits. You need to step out from a narrow focus and into a broader one. That will give you more flexibility." Q: Who has had the greatest influence on your career and why? A: "A great influence on me was Jerry Wilson, who led Hewitt's actuarial practice for many years. He taught me two very important things that made a difference in my career. One was problem solving. Jerry had a unique way of looking at every problem from every angle and from every perspective. That is something that has stayed with me throughout my career. Second, I learned from him to have an intense focus on clients. You have to make sure it always is about the client first. That has stuck with me throughout my career." Q: If you had the ability to change one thing about the industry what would it be? A: "In terms of the benefits consulting industry, I would love for the industry to have a more organized and cohesive way of influencing change."

	Kathleen M. Burns Chief Executive Officer Aon Risk Services Americas' eSolutions Group Chicago Age: 40 Kathleen M. Burns started her insurance career at Aon Corp. as an intern and now leads a team of 200 professionals as chief executive of Aon's Risk Services Americas' eSolutions Group--which provides clients with Internet-based claims and risk management tools. In 2003, she left the company for a time to join Marsh & McLennan Cos. Inc.'s technology solutions group. There, she led the group to record profit margins, helped manage the postacquisition integration of two $60 million technology firms, and became the first female member of Marsh's executive committee. She returned to Aon in April, and in less than six, Ms. Burns and her team have led the unit to its highest sales revenue in its six-year history. Q: What advice would you give young women entering the industry today? A: "Know that whatever they want to achieve, they can. Networking is absolutely essential; network with other women, but also more broadly than that. Being aggressive and not being afraid to go after it. Seeking out other women and keeping those relationships in your life with other women who have maintained balancing a professional career and a healthy marriage." Q: Who has had the greatest influence on your career and why? A: "In terms of a person, my father has been the biggest influence on my career. My parents taught my sisters and me from a very early age that we could accomplish anything if we were willing to work hard. Both of my parents earned college scholarships, and were the first to graduate college in their families. My father had a highly successful business career, and was a great role model for balancing work and family. I always felt that the opportunities for me to succeed were limitless. The other significant influence on my career is athletics. I was an athlete my entire life, ultimately earning a college scholarship for volleyball. The lessons learned in being part of a successful team, and leading that team, all translate directly to the business world. So being a team leader and team member have significantly shaped my management philosophies." Q: If you had the ability to change one thing about the industry what would it be? A: "Taking this industry to the next level where technology is not a back-office operation, but an enabler of doing business, so our industry is at the level of the way that the financial industry and financial institutions are run."

	M. Michele Burns Chairwoman and Chief Executive Officer Mercer Human Resource Consulting L.L.C. New York Age: 48 M. Michele Burns began her career as a senior tax partner at Arthur Andersen L.L.P. before joining Delta Air Lines Inc., where she last served as executive vp and chief financial officer. She then joined Mirant Corp., an Atlanta-based power company, and held several executive positions, including executive vp, CFO and chief restructuring officer. She joined Marsh & McLennan Cos. Inc. as executive vp and CFO earlier this year, and was appointed to her current position at Mercer last month. Q: What advice would you give young women entering the industry today? A: "Listen more than you talk. Work hard. Show up mentally and emotionally. Show up and give all to what you are attempting to do. Stay focused on your goals and don't be deterred." Q: Who has had the greatest influence on your career and why? A: "I had a college professor who inspired me to do more than I thought I could. My boss at Delta taught me how to take my drive and ambition and decisiveness and channel them into the corporate environment in a very meaningful way." Q: If you had the ability to change one thing about the industry what would it be? A: "I would not spend much time trying to change an industry. The industry is going to change and it is our requirement as business people to change with it."

	Pamela Carpenter Chief Operating Officer, Travelers National Accounts St. Paul Travelers Cos. Inc. Hartford, Conn. Age: 52 Pamela Carpenter started in the industry as an account executive with Travelers in 1977, and later served as a manager in commercial lines in the Hartford, Conn., field office. In 1990, she became underwriting officer for the national accounts Northeast region. In 1998, she moved to the Hartford base of operations as a chief underwriting officer and continued to work in commercial underwriting and marketing until assuming her current duties this year. Q: What advice would you give young women entering the industry today? A: "I would encourage them to pursue opportunities in the underwriting and marketing areas and to fix their sights on management positions. Although progress has been made, women are underrepresented in these roles in our industry and there is great opportunity for young women in this industry in the coming years. By staying focused, doing your job with integrity and accepting challenges, any young worker can build a foundation for a promising future." Q: Who has had the greatest influence on your career and why? A: "I've been fortunate in my career to have been influenced and assisted by a few special individuals who served as mentors. Over the years, each of them reinforced a common theme, which was to continually focus on results without sacrificing integrity. Any business environment offers opportunities for risk and creativity, but at the end of the day, if you're not producing positive results--at whatever level of responsibility you may have--your future growth will be limited." Q: If you had the ability to change one thing about the industry what would it be? A: "The insurance industry, like many others, is extremely cyclical in nature, which poses challenges in planning and often results in the industry appearing reactive in the market. As an industry, I think we should work toward being more proactive."

	Karen M. Clark Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer AIR Worldwide Corp. Boston Age: 49 Karen M. Clark had been an insurance company research associate for one year in 1983 when she began developing a simulation model to estimate property losses from hurricanes. Her original model, unveiled in 1986, became the basis for the AIR hurricane model. The following year, Ms. Clark formed AIR to extend the new technology to estimating losses caused by various natural catastrophes. Today, AIR not only offers models that estimate losses from all major natural catastrophes for 400 clients in 45 countries, it also has developed a terrorism model. In 2001, Ms. Clark was named Woman of the Year by the Assn. of Professional Insurance Women. Q: What advice would you give young women entering the industry today? A: "Most importantly, pick a career that they're passionate about and that they truly enjoy doing. Then know your real strengths and how you can best leverage them. Work hard, do your best and never give up. Women have to juggle a lot of different things, so it also helps to maintain a positive can-do attitude," which is necessary in any industry a woman enters. Q: Who has had the greatest influence on your career and why? A: "The people in the industry who first believed in me and who were willing to buy into a new way of managing catastrophe risk. There were several, including James Stanard, a former CEO of Renaissance Re and before that an executive vp of F&G Re, and Gerald Radke, formerly president of Phoenix Re and currently chairman of PXRe. These two individuals were AIR's first two clients and they taught me about reinsurance. AIR might not have survived the first few lean years without them." Ms. Clark also credited Michael Wacek, formerly an actuary with the E.W. Blanch Co. and currently CEO of Odyssey Re's Americas division. "Mike was the first person, other than myself, to become convinced of the industry's need for scientific, engineering-based techniques for catastrophe risk assessment and management and he was a key force behind the development effort that resulted in the first probabilistic catastrophe model used by primary insurers." Q: If you had the ability to change one thing about the industry what would it be? A: "I would like the industry to be more forward thinking about how better data and sophisticated modeling techniques can be utilized to improve business and financial results on an ongoing basis. In general, the data quality problem extends beyond catastrophe modeling. It's a challenge for the future to improve the quality of information going into key underwriting, pricing and risk management decisions."

	Marsha A. Cohen Senior Vp and Director of State Relations Reinsurance Assn. of America Washington Marsha A. Cohen held several management positions at insurers and reinsurers before she began her lobbying career at the RAA in 1992. While working at the RAA she created its for-profit education program as a separate profit center in 2001 and founded the Institute of Reinsurance Education last year. Before being named to her current position last year, she was senior vp and director of education. Among numerous industry activities, Ms. Cohen is a gubernatorial appointee to the New York and Virginia panels on homeowners insurance and treasurer of the District of Columbia Insurance Federation. In addition, she was the Assn. of Professional Insurance Women's Woman of the Year in 2005. Q: Who has had the greatest influence on your career and why? A: "I had the opportunity to meet Myra Leigh Tobin, who was one of the first women managing directors at Marsh. She fought the battles for women who came after her. She is knowledgeable about the industry, has great people skills and always provided sound advice. It meant a great deal to me that someone like Myra believed in my capabilities. She would call and suggest that I might be interested in getting involved in various industry activities and I would take her advice on face value. Myra's valuable advice has encouraged and enriched my career." Q: What advice would you give young women entering the industry today? A: "You need to take the time to learn insurance and reinsurance. Get your CPCU. Take the courses your employer offers. Educating yourself in the industry is a big factor in advancement and as well as in helping your clients. You need to differentiate yourself.... Networking within your industry is extremely important. If you have a difficult professional problem to solve, you need colleagues to discuss the issue. There are times you don't want to go to your boss and say that you have a problem that you don't know how to handle." Q: If you had the ability to change one thing about the industry what would it be? A: "The industry has got to change its image. The industry really does wonderful things, but we're still always being criticized. I also think we need to do a better job of working together and creating workable compromises on issues. I think that it hurts the industry's effectiveness and image when we don't work together to develop viable solutions."

	Christine Dandridge Executive Director Atrium Underwriting P.L.C. London Age: 50 Christine Dandridge began her career at Lloyd's of London in 1978 as a broker. She moved over to underwriting in 1980 and was named deputy underwriter of Atrium's Syndicate 609 in 1984. She became active underwriter in 1997 and she has been a director of Atrium since 1986. Ms. Dandridge is currently a member of the Lloyd's Market Assn. Marine Committee and the Council of Lloyd's. Q: Who has had the greatest influence on your career and why? A: "There were three people who influenced me: Sir David Rowland (former Chairman of Lloyd's) who gave me my first job--but for him I would not be working in insurance at all; Ian Posgate (former Lloyd's underwriter and former member of the Council of Lloyd's) who I worked for in my first underwriting position--he was a brilliant negotiator; and lastly Mark Denby, the founder of Atrium Underwriting who proved that it's possible to have integrity and still be successful in the London market." Q: What advice would you give young women entering the industry today? A: "I would advise young women entering the industry to become professionally qualified as soon as they can--it gives you confidence and more knowledge than your contemporaries. Also learn to play golf--I never did but most of the men in the industry do business on the golf course!" Q: If you had the ability to change one thing about the industry what would it be? A: "I think it would make for a healthier market if the bulk of the London market business were distributed by 10 brokers rather than three."

	Helen Darling President National Business Group on Health Washington Age: 64 Helen Darling joined the National Business Group on Health after spending much of her career directing or advising on the purchase of health care. Early in her career, she was an advisor to Sen. David Durenberger, when he was the ranking Republican on the Health Subcommittee of the Senate Finance Committee. She directed three studies at the Institute of Medicine for the National Academy of Sciences. Later she was a consultant at Watson Wyatt Worldwide and then William M. Mercer. From 1992 through 1998 she directed the purchasing of health benefits and disability at Xerox Corp. Q: If you had the ability to change one thing about the industry what would it be? A: "As a benefits manager, I would most like to see dramatic change in the health care system. Most employers are spending well over $8,000 per employee for their health care, yet perhaps as much as one-third of this expense is wasted on medical care that is unsafe, not useful or not evidence-based best practice care that the patient should be getting.... If we reduced waste, we could also afford coverage for the 46.6 million Americans who have no health insurance." Q: What advice would you give young women entering the industry today? A: "Learn the basics of the fields you may be working in...whether it is actuarial, underwriting, finance, accounting, management science, statistics, epidemiology, research methods, so that you can do all of the jobs you need to do or understand, going up the corporate ladder and so you can manage most effectively when you move into senior management. Get the top tier credentials as soon as possible. Recognize that you will need to be far broader in your vision and your work, even though you need to be grounded in key competencies for your work. Understanding economic, financial and global cultural trends are essential in today's business. Also, candidly, if you decide to take some time (on a part-time basis or even for a few months when you have a baby) and, as your kids grow up, want to have a little more balance in your life, if you have key, highly marketable skills and competencies, it will be a little easier to remain on an executive track." Q: Who has had the greatest influence on your career and why? A: "One of my earliest bosses, after a relatively short time of my being in a small organization as a health researcher, asked me if I wanted to become his second in command and have a COO role.... I was new enough in my post-Master's career to not appreciate what a big leap of faith it was. But that got me on a path with opportunities to function at a completely different level. I am sure it changed my career significantly because I had greater responsibilities at an earlier age than I would have otherwise. One of the things it taught me was that you need to be ready and prepared so that when you also just 'luck out,' you don't stumble or fail."