2023 Women to Watch Awards Americas EMEA
Ana Dores Chief underwriting officer, international financial lines, APAC & Europe
Axa XL, a unit of Axa SA
Madrid
A newspaper ad that caught Ana Dores’ eye during a leisurely Sunday café breakfast with her mother was the lure that put her on a career path in insurance.
The ad placed in 2005 by American International Group Inc. sought a financial lines underwriter and promised training abroad. “It sounded amazing,” said Ms. Dores, who at the time was a month away from finishing her university education in economics. “I was actually attracted to it because of the opportunity that the job would give me to develop myself.”
She answered the ad and soon found herself working in a small AIG office in her native Portugal. The insurer was good on its promise, providing the training and introducing her to a career in financial lines.
“I loved that job,” she said.
Ms. Dores, who later moved to Madrid with AIG, found that financial lines underwriting fulfilled her desire to take on complex and challenging tasks.
“I’m always very curious to learn more and challenge myself, so I’m always getting out of my comfort zone to do a little bit more,” she said. “I’m really engaged in making sure the business works, that colleagues are happy, that we are going the extra mile where we can for our clients. I’m demanding with myself, and I think it has worked so far.”
From AIG, she went on to spend three years at Liberty Specialty Underwriters as a professional indemnity underwriter in Madrid before joining Axa’s office there in 2014. Since then, she has built the insurer’s professional indemnity line in Spain and launched its cyber practice in the Iberia region.
About a year ago, Ms. Dores was named to her current role overseeing financial lines underwriting in 12 countries.
Simona Fumagalli, who now works for Sompo International, hired Ms. Dores for her first role at Axa.
“What I like about her approach is that she is always trying to think outside the box,” Ms. Fumagalli said. “She’s very solution-driven but also tries to think of alternative ways of finding solutions.”
Michael Bradford
