DIANE BIDEK | Age: 34 Vice president

Beecher Carlson Insurance Services LLC

Atlanta

Diane Bidek helps clients develop insurance programs to manage risk, specializing in large and complex programs, all with a simplistic approach: collaboration and being personable. Those are her trademarks, according to colleagues. She does this, they say, by going into “the weeds” to better understand the needs of an organization.

What is the biggest challenge of working through the pandemic?

Staying up to date with people. It used to be that if someone’s office door was open you could pop in and have a conversation. That happened organically. And now with the pandemic you have to schedule everything. It feels a little forced. Another challenge is that our clients are going through a lot, and they are asking us questions we don’t have answers to.

What advice would you give to someone starting out in the business?

The first piece of advice right now is to keep your calendar full. Just try to jump in people’s calendars even if they have 15 or 20 minutes. Working at home, it’s easy to fall into this habit of, I’m just doing my work here. You are losing some of that mentorship and career growth that you would have if you were in the office all day.

How will your work change going forward?

I still feel like it is very early in this whole new normal. I think my work will change in that we will have a more virtual or online collaborative workforce. You won’t necessarily be in the office as much. I think these will be good changes.

What is something about you that would surprise people?

I am the world’s worst speller. I have every spellcheck you can have on Excel, Outlook or email. I can’t send anything without checking.

All-time favorite movie?

“A League of Their Own”

What is your favorite meal?

Pizza. Even bad pizza is good pizza to me.

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