2023 Women to Watch Awards Americas EMEA
Jacqueline Sinclair Compliance director
CFC Underwriting Ltd.
London
Jacqueline Sinclair’s background in regulation provided her with an entry point into the insurance industry when she arrived in London a dozen years ago.
After growing up in Australia, she attended law school before joining securities regulator the Australian Securities & Investments Commission, working in regulatory enforcement.
“I had the opportunity to work on matters at a much more advanced level than if you start out in private practice, and it piqued my interest in financial services regulation,” she said.
After qualifying as a solicitor, Ms. Sinclair decided she wanted to try living abroad so she sold up, packed up and showed up in London looking for a job in 2011.
After some interim work she took a job at Lloyd’s of London working with the international regulatory affairs team, where she focused on advocating for Lloyd’s in the United States. She then moved to the financial crime and sanctions team, where she negotiated with regulators over how Iranian sanctions were implemented for the insurance sector, among other things.
In 2015, Ms. Sinclair moved to a more commercial role at a managing general agency, eventually joining CFC to build its compliance department in 2016.
“They had pretty big aspirations to expand globally from a single office in London,” she said. “The opportunity to lead that license expansion for CFC and build out a brand new compliance function was really attractive.”
Starting with one license, the company now has more than 150 licenses globally that her team, which now totals 18, negotiated.
In addition, she has been involved in large transactions related to CFC including deals bringing in private-equity investors.
Ms. Sinclair executes her role with “expertise, subtle confidence and a care that commands respect across the business,” said Louise O’Shea, a nonexecutive director at CFC.
The majority of her leadership team are women, and she has ensured that senior staff are offered flexible working arrangements.
“The further up the corporate ladder you get, it gets tougher and tougher to make that work, so that is something I’m committed to,” she said.
Gavin Souter
