Kelly Hunter | Age: 45 Head of client and broker engagement, UK

American International Group UK Ltd.

London

Kelly Hunter’s entry into the insurance sector was in 1993 via an on-the-job training course offered to young people in the United Kingdom.

The two-year program took her straight from high school at 17 into the broking world at Marsh, initially as an office junior. This led 18 months later to a permanent role in client support, and then to a client adviser role.

She learned on the job, absorbing knowledge from others while coming to understand the technicalities of insurance in the U.K.

“I have a natural ability to ooze enthusiasm and, even now, I look for that when I recruit people. If you have someone who’s enthusiastic, then you’re halfway there, if not more than halfway there,” Ms. Hunter said.

She has reinvented and challenged herself as her career has progressed. After 16 years working at Marsh, she took a “leap of faith” when an opportunity arose to move out of broking and join insurer AIG in 2015.

Pushing herself to leave the organization where she had grown up in the business and take a client-facing role at a major insurer was a move she regards as one of her key business accomplishments to date.

“I’ve played this back to anybody I’ve coached or mentored because moving companies can be overwhelming to some people,” she said. She keeps up with the contacts she built up through her years in broking because “insurance is a relationships business.”

Ms. Hunter’s ability to navigate complex situations involving multiple stakeholders with often conflicting agendas and reach good outcomes is what differentiates her, said Anthony Baldwin, CEO of AIG UK. “She makes sure we come together in a way that works very well,” Mr. Baldwin said.

Ms. Hunter credits her parents for inspiring her. Her father has had multiple sclerosis since before she was born, and her mother is his caregiver. “How they go about life every single day is quite remarkable, and that’s what keeps me going,” she said.