2023 Women to Watch Awards Americas EMEA
Andrea Brock General manager, Germany
QBE Insurance
Dusseldorf
During her mid-teens, Andrea Brock was not looking to follow in the footsteps of her father and grandparents who worked in insurance.
But when she turned 18, she had second thoughts. Sort of.
“I realized it might be a good starting point to develop my career for a different segment,” she said. That led her to an apprenticeship at Axa Colonia Versicherung AG in Dusseldorf.
For someone who was initially tentative about an insurance career, Ms. Brock threw herself into the profession. While working at Gerling Group, she studied economics in evening classes for three years. “It was always essential to gain work experience while studying and not look at both things in isolation,” she said.
Her first management role was at Chubb Insurance Co. in Germany, when, as a 30-year-old, she was approached by the insurer, which was looking for someone to manage its Central and Eastern Europe operations.
A later career turn was one that made her particularly proud. After 15 months at Amlin Insurance, she and a friend who was an underwriting manager decided that, even though the odds were long, they could convince a U.K. insurer to launch a German unit.
AmTrust International liked their pitch.
“The CEO at the time said, ‘Well, ladies, it sounds like a brilliant idea. Can you present a business case in the next two weeks?’” she recalled. Several months later the German unit of AmTrust was writing business and in its second year delivered a profit.
After AmTrust sold the business, Ms. Brock moved to QBE Europe, where she said she is one of only two female general managers of a commercial insurer in Germany. The scarcity of women in the role led her to establish Frauen in der Industrieversicherung, a group that aims to increase the visibility of women in insurance.
“It is very difficult for women to position themselves in the German market,” said Beatriz Valenti Barbat, director of insurance for QBE in Europe. Working to raise their profile there is one of Ms. Brock’s most notable achievements, she said.
Michael Bradford
