2021 Women to Watch Awards Americas EMEA
Rianne Baumann Chief broking officer
Raetsheren Van Orden Groep B.V., a unit of Acrisure LLC
Alkmaar, Netherlands
Rianne Baumann has achieved much in her career in the insurance industry, but she’s also given back.
Like many, she came to insurance indirectly. In high school in the Netherlands, she wanted to be an attorney, but after qualifying and working for a law firm that worked with insurers, she decided she preferred the immediacy of the insurance business and moved to a broker.
From there, she moved to Crawford & Co.’s Rotterdam office in 2010 as head of liability for the Netherlands. After several promotions, in 2018 she was looking for a new challenge and joined Raetsheren Van Orden Groep B.V., a year before it was purchased by U.S. brokerage Acrisure LLC.
Promoted to chief broking officer in 2019, she has 55 direct reports, leading a team of brokers and claims handlers and managing external relationships.
Ms. Baumann is inventive as well as driven, said George Oostrom, general director at CED Europe, who worked with her at Crawford.
“You are always looking for rainmakers and she can turn dreams into steel,” he said.
In addition to her core work at the brokerage, she works with young people.
“What I like to do and what I think is very important in this market is to draw interest from young people and set up programs to draw young people to the market and make sure we guide them in the right way,” she said.
At Crawford, she set up “mentor buddy” programs and arranged trips for younger staff to visit the London market, among other things. She continues her efforts at her current company, where she has worked on Raetsheren Academy sessions to improve training and help younger staff connect during the COVID-19 pandemic. She also rolled out a program to work with an organization that helps introduce children from deprived areas to the industry.
“If you get opportunities, there is an obligation to give back something for all the chances that you got,” Ms. Baumann said.
With her brother, she organized an annual beach volleyball tournament for the insurance market that has raised more than €250,000 ($290,000) for a charity fighting amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease.
