2022 Women to Watch Awards Americas EMEA
Michelle Sartain Managing director, head of Marsh Specialty, U.S. and Canada
Marsh LLC
New York
Michelle Sartain has been in the insurance industry for 26 years, all of them with Marsh. She leads the specialty business for the United States and Canada, defined as aviation; marine; credit specialties; financial lines, including cyber, private equity and transactional risk; construction; surety; and energy and power.
“Mostly my focus is to make sure I’m working with our specialty leaders to drive differentiated solutions and value to our clients — many who view specialty as the way they want to receive services from their broker,” she said.
These services involve sharing industry trends that are relevant, “and looking into the future to recognize trends that might impact their business,” she said. “We help them to mitigate risk and plan for it.”
Ms. Sartain said that over the years there have been several highlights in her career.
“One was the time that I spent as the New York metro sales leader,” she said. “During my 10 years we grew sales of that region by 100%.”
Through the three years of the COVID-19 pandemic, she helped lead Marsh’s financial and professional liability practice in the U.S. and Canada “and managed to grow the business by 25% during the final year, as well as maintain the culture of the team and keep their morale up during difficult times,” she said.
Ms. Sartain, whose responsibilities now include overseeing the more than 1,000 people who make up the specialty business in the U.S. and Canada, wants to help employees achieve their goals.
Part of this is through mentoring. “Also, I’m able to highlight opportunities in the organization and to share some of my experiences — both successes and failures,” she said.
Patrick Donnelly, president of Marsh U.S. and Canada, said, “Michelle’s strength as a leader and her excellent relationship skills have been evident since she started her career at Marsh.”
He noted that with the many leadership responsibilities Ms. Sartain has had, “she has been responsible for streamlining and delivering best practices and overseeing the exceptional client service they have received.”
