Tanya Gee | Age: 51 Principal and lead property & casualty broker

EPIC Insurance Brokers & Consultants

San Francisco

A desire to work in the insurance industry led Tanya Gee to compete for the one internship being awarded at her college. She won the internship with the Minnesota-based St. Paul Insurance Cos., which later became part of Travelers Cos. Inc.

Ms. Gee later moved to Aon PLC before joining Calco Insurance Brokers & Agents Inc. as vice president. Calco became EPIC in 2007, and Ms. Gee was named principal in 2009.

One client she has found especially exciting to work with is a renewable energy organization.

“Now, it’s sustainability, which is a broader category,” she said. “It’s about solving an issue — understanding the impact of climate change, such as accelerated weather patterns.”

Organizations have been coming up with a number of solutions, “and we have been trying to support them by designing insurance products to enable them to grow,” Ms. Gee said.

Now that the industry has matured and fewer people need the product, EPIC has expanded its focus to “guarantee the performance of renewable projects, not just solar,” Ms. Gee said.

“It could be battery storage — batteries are a hot market right now.” This is because most power is generated during the day and batteries are needed to store the energy for later.

Ms. Gee is a strong proponent of women in the industry.

“I am a minority and a woman, so I know how it is,” she said. “Most of my teams are women and they are equally as competitive and capable as men.”

Meg Sneddon, vice president, corporate communications & marketing at EPIC, who has known Ms. Gee for nine years, said she “has been an inspiration for a lot of women. She has worked very hard to get to where she is and aspires to continue to evolve.”

Ms. Gee mentors young women, “which is important,” Ms. Sneddon said. “The industry is very white male-dominated, so it’s nice to have more women and diversity. The fact that Tanya is being recognized as a woman to watch speaks for itself.”