ZACH BOWLING | Age: 36 Executive vice president, branch leader

Amwins Group Inc.

Tampa

Zach Bowling’s plans to become a restaurateur after he graduated with a hospitality degree in 2009 were thwarted by the lingering Great Recession, leading him to instead join the insurance industry as an underwriter. Fifteen years later, Mr. Bowling leads the Amwins Tampa, Florida, branch as a specialist in the inland marine/transportation sector.

What’s your advice on navigating the current insurance market?

Try to learn as much as you can and build those insurance fundamentals. We as an industry tend to focus too much on if somebody has an insurance background or experience, or if they went to school to learn insurance, but a lot of what you need to know can be learned on the job. It’s important, especially as we work with younger people, to reassure them that nobody’s an expert overnight.

How are technological advances affecting your job?

Technology is really important to what we do. It helps us every day with improving processes and communication. We’re able to capture so much data on so many industry subsets, and we can use that data to our advantage to pinpoint potential opportunities and create products.

What’s a problem that needs fixing in your sector?

Transportation is a really challenging marketplace. Capacity is challenging because we’ve had a lot of turbulence over the past few years with the legal environment in certain regions. A challenge all underwriters are facing right now is bandwidth. There are so many accounts coming in the door, and there’s not enough underwriters to support the business coming in, and they are limited in what they can offer.

What’s something about you that would surprise people?

I love heavy metal music.

Favorite hobby or pastime?

Hanging out with my family and my dogs. And I love cooking and traveling.