2021 Women to Watch Awards Americas EMEA
Louise Rose CEO, TransRe London Ltd.; president-Europe, the Middle East and Africa
Transatlantic Holdings Inc.
London
Perhaps unsurprisingly for someone whose career has ranged from technical translator in Italy to CEO in the London reinsurance market, Louise Rose believes in taking advantage of opportunities to get involved.
A European business studies graduate, she began as a freelance translator in Italy, where she worked on a variety of projects, including user manuals for Alfa Romeo cars.
On returning to her native Manchester, England, she applied for various jobs and wound up in a graduate program at National Vulcan Engineering Insurance Group Ltd., which was then a subsidiary of Sun Alliance Group PLC., working on its overseas reinsurance team.
In 1997, she moved to TransRe in London. Over the next nearly 25 years she took on numerous projects, including a job exchange in New York, and was named CEO of the unit in 2019.
“There are only 650 people worldwide in TransRe, so if you put yourself out there you can get to know a broad spectrum of people and get involved in a lot of different things,” she said.
That experience is something she seeks to pass on to younger staff members, urging them to become involved in projects outside of their day jobs.
Also to support younger staff, she set in motion a program to make up for informal interactions with managers that were lost during the COVID-19 pandemic, by leading regular Q&A sessions and, among other things, introducing a “buddy system” to provide people with an informal sounding board.
A positive change from the pandemic, and one that will benefit working parents and help improve gender diversity at the higher levels of the industry, is the ease with which companies moved to remote working, Ms. Rose said.
“We have answered the question for good about the ability of our industry to cope with flexible working,” she said.
Her career experiences have also developed her leadership skills. In particular, Ms. Rose is decisive when a decision needs to be made, said Will Mills, group head of ceded reinsurance at Beazley PLC, a TransRe cedent.
“With any negotiation, there comes a point when you have to make a commercial judgment and she’s very good about rising above the details,” he said.
