2023 Women to Watch Awards Americas EMEA
Meghan Walker Head of aviation
Liberty Specialty Markets, a unit of Liberty Mutual Insurance Co.
London
When Meghan Walker was awarded a fellowship in 2002 to do post-graduate work in London for a year, she wasn’t concerned that it was in a field that was new to her.
The Wattles Fellowship sent her to work for an aviation broker at Lloyd’s of London. “I didn’t know anything about aviation or insurance, but I wanted to work in London for a year,” she said.
“I thought, this is great,” Ms. Walker said of her stint at Lloyd’s. “I love this. I get to see the world and learn about insurance, and I really liked the dynamic of the London market. I was sold.”
She also met her future husband during that year, and, after returning home to Atlanta — where she continued her career in aviation insurance for about three years — Ms. Walker moved back to London after getting married. “And I’ve been here ever since,” she said.
Ms. Walker, who is among the few female heads of aviation in the market, was named to her current role in 2020, just before the COVID-19 pandemic took hold. “As you can imagine, airplanes didn’t fly much during that time,” she said. Locked down at home, “we were able to service all of our clients who needed to renegotiate their premium terms and conditions. … We worked very hard,” she said.
In 2022, Ms. Walker was given responsibility for Liberty’s aviation war account about two months before Russia invaded Ukraine. With a large market share, “we had a lot to wrap our arms around,” she said. “The market changed very much, and terms and conditions all needed to be looked at very closely. We’ve been doing a lot of work in the last 18 months around that.”
Peng Lim, head of aviation claims at Liberty Specialty Markets, said Ms. Walker is a “visionary in terms of our business” and is “passionate and principled about everything she does. She’s creative, and she’s highly empathetic to those around her.”
Ms. Walker remains involved with the Wattles Fellowship, accepting a female fellow into her team each year.
Michael Bradford
