Women to Watch: 2006

April 07, 2009 Reprints

	Pamela E. Davis President and CEO Nonprofits Insurance Alliance Group Santa Cruz, Calif. Age: 54 Pamela E. Davis entered the insurance business in 1989 when she launched the Nonprofits' Insurance Alliance of California. Since then, NIAC has grown to be a significant player in the nonprofit insurance market in California with well over 5,000 policyholders and $50 million in annual premium volume. In 2000, she launched, with grants from the Bill and Melinda Gates and David and the Lucile Packard foundations, the Alliance of Nonprofits for Insurance Risk Retention Group, which began writing business in 2001 and now provides coverage to about 2,000 nonprofit organizations outside of California. She also started an offshore association captive, which reinsures the two insurance programs. Q: If you had the ability to change one thing about the industry what would it be? A: "I'd like to attend an event with senior executives of this industry and not have others automatically assume that I'm one of the spouses and not a peer." Q: What advice would you give young women entering the industry today? A: "Be honest with yourself and what motivates you. Find a role that is consistent with your values. Work hard. Learn from everyone. Don't let yourself be defined by others' expectations. Build a life that you have time to enjoy." Q: Who has had the greatest influence on your career and why? A: "It was a California state legislator who derided me in 1988 when I said nonprofits are being ill-treated by the commercial insurance industry. I remember thinking, before I left the hearing room that I was going to show--even if I had to prove it by creating an insurance company--that nonprofits were well-managed and desirable risks to insure. That is what goaded me to do it."

	Elizabeth Francy Demaret Managing Director, Worldwide Risk Services Group Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Itasca, Ill. Age: 40 Elizabeth Francy Demaret got her start in the industry as a summer intern prior to attending college. Early in her career, she worked for CIGNA Corp. and Home Insurance Co, and in 1995, while working at Near North Insurance Co., she developed the Worldlink system which provided insurance regulation information in more than 100 countries worldwide for risk managers and insurance carriers. For the past five years, she has headed the Worldwide Risk Services Group for Gallagher, overseeing the international retail market niche. In that role, she has responsibility for multinational sales, client service management for a roster of more than 2,500 multinational clients and management of the Optimus Network of independent brokers in 120 countries. She also serves on the AJG Terrorism Task Force. Q: Who has had the greatest influence on your career and why? A: "The biggest influence on my career is that at each stop along the way and at each level, I found a mentor. A mentor can become a roadmap for your career, pointing out a new path that you haven't seen, identifying issues that you should focus on or skill sets that you need. Some people are lucky enough to find one mentor during their careers; I have been lucky enough to find several." Q: What advice would you give young women entering the industry today? A: "Manage your professional reputation with as much energy as you manage your career, and make sure your reputation is as strong as your work. You manage your reputation by behaving in an honorable, professional manner that makes a lasting impression. If you leave a position, leave it with a respect for the institution you worked for and the people you worked with. You should always be able to call former co-workers for assistance, networking or to maintain the professional friendship." Q: If you had the ability to change one thing about the industry what would it be? A: "If I were able to change one thing about the industry, it would be to encourage the industry to get back to training people in a formal, structured program. The industry always had great training programs, but in the 1990s that fell off. I'd love to see the industry raising its own insurance professionals again. Here at AJG, we have a very strong internship program. I worked with three 21-year-old interns recently, and it's great to see them get excited about the industry. We can bring in the best and the brightest, but we have to train them. What makes us good professionals is our technical knowledge."

	Carol Denzer Vp and Chief Information Officer RLI Corp. Peoria, Ill. Age: 43 Before joining RLI, Carol Denzer was a treaty accountant at E. W. Blanch Co. in Minneapolis. She began her RLI career in 1987 as a reinsurance accountant. Ms. Denzer earned several designations and was promoted to a variety of accounting and reinsurance positions, including chief property/casualty accountant as well as manager, reinsurance accounting. Ms. Denzer was named assistant vp of reinsurance in 1998; vp, reinsurance and catastrophe management in 2004; and to her current position in 2006. Ms. Denzer manages a staff of about 170 professionals across RLI's various information technology and operational departments. Q: What advice would you give young women entering the industry today? A: "My advice is to learn as much as you can, be true to yourself and others. Hard work will earn you respect and integrity in all that you do and will carry you wherever and to whatever you want to accomplish. In today's work environment, you will need to strive to become an expert in your field, but you should never lose sight of the big picture. Set some achievable goals, achieve them and then set others. Try not to get too comfortable. Work at building and maintaining mentoring relationships and support structures. Enjoy what you do." Q: Who has had the greatest influence on your career and why? A: "I have a very strong support system--starting with my parents, my husband, children and friends--which allows me to focus on my career. I have had numerous mentors at RLI that have allowed me the opportunity to take on new challenges and grow in my positions. My greatest influence has been my husband. He has never stopped supporting or believing in me through all of the ups and downs of my career." Q: If you had the ability to change one thing about the industry what would it be? A: "The one item I would change, speaking as a domestic insurance carrier, is the fact that we are at a distinct expense (tax) disadvantage to offshore entities operating in the United States. Their expense advantage creates an uneven playing field and influences the natural insurance pricing market cycle.... I believe requiring offshore entities operating in the United States to pay their appropriate share of tax will help level the playing field and will ensure that insurance remains a capital market product for years to come."

	Marie Gemma Dequae Group Risk and Insurance Manager NV Bekaert S.A. Zwevegem, Belgium Age: 58 Marie Gemma Dequae joined the NV Bekaert S.A. in 1985 overseeing building risk management awareness and setting up a global risk and insurance department. She is now the group risk and insurance manager at Bekaert as well as a director of Becare Ltd., the group's reinsurance company in Dublin, Ireland. Ms. Dequae also has been president of the Federation of European Risk Management Assns. since October 2005. In addition, she is also vp of the Belgian Risk Management Assn. and was president of the association between 1994 and 2005. Q: What advice would you give young women entering the industry today? A: "In the present changing world it is important to start with good training in the job, but education and training should be a permanent part of the job, for yourself as well as for the people you are working with. Good communication is also becoming a permanent element in risk management, as you will be dealing with a lot of different people in your company and also outside your company." Q: Who has had the greatest influence on your career and why? A: "In an earlier stage, it was my father who gave me his very good example, as a politician and top manager, and taught me how to deal with and listen to people and work hard to obtain good results. In a later stage my husband became my best supporter and helped with difficult decisions. He is always there when I need some support and he accepts with patience my very busy agenda." Q: If you had the ability to change one thing about the industry what would it be? A: "Referring to my first remark on a changing world, I think it is important that insurers follow these changes and the affect they are having on industrial and commercial organizations: Changes in processes, like outsourcing, insourcing, just-in-time deliveries, business reprocessing, and so much more, so that they can adapt their products to the changing industrial and commercial world quicker. The result is that we need adaptable insurances. So I would like the industry to become more creative and flexible in proposing new products."

	Corbette S. Doyle Global Chief Diversity Officer Aon Corp. Chicago Age: 50 Corbette S. Doyle began her insurance industry career in 1979. Among other things, she worked in planning and underwriting functions at Utica, N.Y.-based Utica National Insurance Group, and in the research department of Willis Group Holdings Ltd., where she eventually went on to co-chair Willis' health care industry practice. In 1993, she joined Aon Corp. to launch a companywide health care practice, and in 2004 she was promoted to executive vp of Aon Risk Services with responsibility for a dozen industry practice groups. Earlier this year, she became Aon's first-ever chief diversity officer, reporting directly to the chief executive officer. Ms. Doyle was the recipient of the 2006 Assn. of Professional Insurance Women Inc.'s Woman of the Year award. Q: If you had the ability to change one thing about the industry what would it be? A: "I would change the perception of the senior management of our clients, relative to the importance of risk management to their company. I would love to have CEOs, in particular, and CFOs on a secondary level, rank risk management as a more important function within their organizations." Q: What advice would you give young women entering the industry today? A: "Raise your hand and seek opportunities. Don't wait for the opportunities to find you." Q: Who has had the greatest influence on your career and why? A: "The person that's influenced me the most in my career is Mike Rice Sr. (chairman of Aon Risk Services Americas). He is the individual who recruited me from Willis, where I was very happy and had a very successful career. Mike has been the most influential for two different reasons. He has an ideal blend of micro- and macro-management skills. He will be hands-off and allow you the flexibility to run things your own way, yet he's there for advice and support when you need it. My experience is most managers are good at one or the other and not both. The other reason I think Mike has been so influential in my career is he has taken a very strong interest in both creating opportunities for me, or advising me when he thinks an opportunity would not be in my best interest. I think it's rare to find a mentor that can help steer you towards things and away from things."

	Lynn Drennan Chief Executive Assn. of Local Authority Risk Managers Glasgow, Scotland Age: 53 Before she took up her post at ALARM in August 2006 Lynn Drennan was executive director of the Cullen Centre for Risk and Governance, and Head of the Division of Risk, at Glasgow Caledonian University. As chief executive of ALARM, Ms. Drennan heads the United Kingdom's association for risk management in the public sector, which has over 1,800 members. In addition, Ms. Drennan has conducted research projects for public and private sector clients, and has served on committees of the Chartered Insurance Institute, ALARM and the Institute of Risk Management. Q: Who has had the greatest influence on your career and why? A: "I am fortunate in having had a number of line managers who encouraged and provided opportunities for me to learn and progress. The expression 'feel the fear but do it anyway' pretty much sums up the first 10 years of my career. It never occurred to me to say 'no' to taking on interesting tasks or projects, if I thought I could learn from them. The result was that one good thing tended to lead to another." Q: What advice would you give young women entering the industry today? A: "Aim for the highest qualification you can in your chosen field; join a professional body and actively engage with other members by attending or presenting at events and offering to serve on committees; and remember that you only get out of life what you're prepared to put in. If you don't feel enthusiastic about your work, then you're in the wrong job and need to make a change." Q: If you had the ability to change one thing about the industry what would it be? A: "I would like to see greater emphasis on continuing professional development, both in terms of soft skills and technical knowledge, and greater recognition of professional qualifications and standards. Too often, the industry pays lip service to these aspects and does not provide real support and incentives to staff that will enable learning to take place, encourage innovation, and ensure continuous improvement in service delivery."

	Alice Edwards National Practice Leader Hilb Rogal & Hobbs Co. Atlanta Age: 45 Alice Edwards began her career in 1980 as an aviation underwriting assistant with the Insurance Co. of North America in London. She later joined Tomas Howell and spent six years as loss adjuster in Jakarta, Indonesia. In 1997, she joined Cunningham Lindsey in Atlanta as global business unit manager. She became senior property claims consultant with the Hobbs Group in Atlanta in 2002. Hobbs became part of Hilb Rogal & Hobbs Co. the same year, and in 2004, Ms. Edwards was named national practice leader of the brokerage's Complex Property Claims operation. Q: What advice would you give young women entering the industry today? A: "Young women often have a confidence problem. They feel that they have to prove themselves and keep proving themselves. My advice is to get the best professional designation you can, such as a CPCU or ARM, put it on your business card, and then get over the need to keep proving yourself. You're as good as anyone out there--if you believe it then so will everyone else. I also feel that women, more than men, need to have a long-term career strategy. The reality is that women still do most of the child-raising in our society. The best way to balance work and family, in my view, is to take a long-term approach. Build knowledge, street smarts and contacts early on. Get some early achievements under your belt. Then, if you need to, you will be able to go into maintenance mode for some years in the middle of your career while you spend some time with your small children. During that time, try to take on some high-profile or higher-risk projects that continue to build experience and add strength to your resume. Once (your children) are more independent, you can throw yourself back in to work as the center of your life." Q: Who has had the greatest influence on your career and why? A: "That is so difficult to answer. There have been several male managers that I have reported to who came up in what was almost an exclusively male industry, who saw how the industry was changing, and what opportunities were going to open up for able women. There have also been outstanding women that I wanted to emulate." Q: If you had the ability to change one thing about the industry what would it be? A: "We have taken great strides in recruiting and promoting able women. Now, we need to work hard to make our industry more attractive to minorities--once we successfully mirror our clients and prospects by reflecting and embracing the broad spectrum of American society, we'll be able to fully understand and respond to their needs."

	Karen K. Farris President and Chief Executive Officer Roach Howard Smith & Barton Dallas Age: 56 Karen K. Farris joined Dallas-based independent insurance agency RHSB in 1982 and went on to found the company's technology practice. She joined the company's board in 1989 and was named president in 1994 and CEO in 1996. In 2002, she was named the first woman chairman of Assurex Global, a brokerage network with more that 100 partner firms, and she also has served as president of the Dallas chapter of the CPCU Society and president of the Independent Insurance Agents of Dallas. She holds the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter and Associate in Risk Management designations. Q: If you had the ability to change one thing about the industry what would it be? A: "I would like to see more flexibility in the workplace in terms of job structure. The industry needs to find more creative ways to handle the needs of our clients and provide exceptional customer service, while still allowing our employees to balance their personal and professional lives. I would like to see us use technology to accomplish this." Q: What advice would you give young women entering the industry today? A: "Embrace challenges as opportunities, and don't accept limitations in terms of what you can accomplish." Q: Who has had the greatest influence on your career and why? A: "No doubt that would be the founder of our firm, Richard Roach, because he saw in me qualities that I never saw in myself, and he challenged me, mentored me and gave me opportunities."

	Trish Getty Chief Executive Officer/Executive Director Assn. of Insurance and Reinsurance Run-Off Cos. Alpharetta, Ga. Age: 58 Trish Getty has been active in the insurance and reinsurance industry for more than 40 years. She spent most of her career in the area of reinsurance claims, cutting her teeth with Berkshire Hathaway's National Indemnity Re, where she spent the first 12 years of her reinsurance career. After serving in several management positions in the reinsurance industry, in 2004, she worked with a handful of insurance veterans to form the Assn. of Insurance and Reinsurance Run-Off Cos. as a way for insurers and reinsurers to address the common concerns associated with run-off business and to work together to identify solutions to their common problems. Serving as its founding CEO and executive director, Ms. Getty has built AIRROC in less than two years into an association with 55 members, including many of the world's largest insurers and reinsurers. Q: Who has had the greatest influence on your career and why? A: "Art Betz, who was the director of reinsurance claims throughout the '70s and early '80s at National Indemnity Re. He was a son of a college professor, so he also loved to teach and I became his student and he my mentor. He taught me to be 100% honest; he grilled me on reinsurance and primary coverages; he pushed me into taking several insurance courses; and he gave me the confidence that I could achieve my goals. I owe so much to him." Q: What advice would you give young women entering the industry today? A: "Don't allow your gender to impede your progress and achievement of your personal goals in the industry. Keep your nose to the grindstone and learn everything possible about your sector of the industry and then more. Be creative to identify more efficient and cost effective ways to achieve results. Identify a mentor in your industry who will freely advise and guide you. Don't be afraid to be a leader and never compromise your principles." Q: If you had the ability to change one thing about the industry what would it be? A: I wish we could revert to a gentleman's world emphasizing ethics, fairness and trustworthiness, which seems to be missing today. There should be some sort of penalty mechanism in place, for example, for reinsurers that do not pay on a timely basis without a contractual or reasonable reason for nonpayment. I wish that regulators could recognize this problem and develop a mechanism or process for penalties and be prepared to implement them.

	Alexandra Glickman Area Vice Chairman and Managing Director-Practice Leader, Real Estate & Hospitality Services Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Glendale, Calif. Age: 47 Alexandra Glickman entered the industry in 1983 working for Johnson & Higgins. She later launched Marsh Inc.'s real estate industry practice and created "Real Secure," an integrated professional liability and D&O product for the industry. As leader of Gallagher's real estate and hospitality practices for the past six years, she heads a team that insures a commercial real estate portfolio valued at $75 billion. She also remains a hands-on broker and is the area vice chairman of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Insurance Brokers of California Inc. In addition, Ms. Glickman is president of the Real Estate & Construction Industries Council for City of Hope, a cancer treatment and research center in Los Angeles. Q: If you had the ability to change one thing about the industry what would it be? A: "I would make industry regulations more uniform and logical so that clients, insurers and brokers are not at the whim of each state. There's tremendous redundancy in this current system which doesn't appear to benefit anyone but the individual state that imposes it." Q: What advice would you give young women entering the industry today? A: "Pay close attention to all aspects of the industry, not just the insurance piece, but more importantly to the business issues of your client. Always take one more step--work an extra half-hour, ask an extra question, do more research. Don't ever stop learning. Be capable and flexible enough to participate in multiple areas of the industry." Q: Who has had the greatest influence on your career and why? A: "There's no one person. I have been very fortunate to have been exposed to so many people who became mentors. Christine LaSala who I met at J&H was a role model. She was one of the most successful women in insurance and had a great influence on my career as a friend and mentor. Chuck Curland at J&H really taught me the ethics of the business and that there's no compromise on ethics. Bob Gallagher was a tremendous role model. He really believed in creating a family-like relationship with your clients and people in your markets."