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2022 Women to Watch Awards Americas EMEA

Clarissa Franks Managing director, retail placement leader

Marsh Ltd.

London

It was seeing her mother, who worked at a consultancy advising banks on how to manage credit risk, use language to negotiate and position strategy that led Clarissa Franks to a career in insurance.

She joined the industry through a graduate trainee program at Aon PLC in London, doing “a little bit of everything,” and realized how much she enjoyed “talking to clients and negotiating in the market.”

When the program finished, she received several job offers. She chose Marsh because she wanted to work on large, complex global risks, starting as a junior property placement broker.

Placing the tougher business means “you aren’t necessarily the broker whom anyone wants to talk to, because no one wants to necessarily underwrite the risks you’ve got,” she said.

But the demand from clients for creativity and technical understanding of how different insurance solutions could work and then articulating their needs to insurers “was what I wanted to go and do,” she said.

Ms. Franks is very tactical and strategic, and careful about how she approaches a conversation, said Robert Pastore, senior director, global risk management at Walmart Inc.

“We needed ideas on how to restructure our property program and right size. She’s done a fantastic job of doing that. She’s done an even better job at getting the right deal for us with the insurers,” Mr. Pastore said.

Working hard, getting the job done and achieving the best results for clients are the keys to her success, Ms. Franks said. There again she was influenced by her mother.

“She was a single mom who worked in a very male environment, who was very good at what she did. We’d have dinner together and then she’d go and be sitting working on her computer. That work ethic has definitely stuck with me,” she said.

Ms. Franks admits to being an “insurance geek.” She watched the live screening on YouTube of the Financial Conduct Authority’s test case on business interruption COVID-19 claims. “The use of language in capturing commitments that an insurer makes to a client is really interesting,” she said.