Elite Women 2023
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Women leaders in insurance
To determine the 53 winners of the 2023 Elite Women awards, Insurance Business America assembled a panel of expert judges. Each of the Elite Women stands out due to her reputation and demonstrable ability.
Part of the judging panel was Sabrina Hart of the ISC Group. When analyzing the merits of the nominees, Hart explains that she gave particular credit to women leaders in insurance who had:
impressive overall qualifications and longevity in the industry
been nominated by their peers
helped drive advancements in diversity and inclusion
achieved significant accomplishments
not necessarily risen to CEO role
Regarding the issue of women standing out in insurance, Hart acknowledges lingering problems associated with society, such as “unconscious bias,” but sees things changing.
“For me it’s very much a strategic issue for organizations because when you look at demographics and you look at the talent pool and the talent pool is going to be more diverse,” she says. “You just look at graduation rates and who’s coming and who’s going to be available, and your customers are going to be more diverse, and more diverse customers are going to demand more diverse partners. But you know the difficulty for individuals is some of it is still society and some are still the organizations that may not have prioritized diversity as much.”
“I was able to leverage my sales background and passion for clients”
Carrie BarrVerisk
What differentiates IBA’s winners from their peers?
Carrie Barr, president of casualty solutions at Verisk, has distinguished herself by being relentless about the customer experience and remaining collaborative yet decisive in leadership. This trait has been combined with her passion for coaching and “growing” people.
As a result, she has managed to:
receive various company awards for sales performance
help clients save nearly $250 million in Medicare liens over a two-year period
save over $2.2 million in Treasury Department disputes
improve application of comparative liability by up to 20%
reduce medical review times by up to 90%
Wade Associates president Cheryl Nabell has similarly been marked out as a top performer by transitioning from an actuary to a producer, then to an executive. Along the way, she has mentored young and other promising people in the industry.
As a result of her noteworthy efforts, she has:
developed a highly functioning team that has worked to increase agency 2019 revenue by almost 50% by the end of this year
helped her company become a Big I Best Practices Agency for the first time ever in 2022
Meanwhile, Maureen Caviston, the executive vice president at Amwins, has stood out by:
securing a seat next to male colleagues at “the table”
becoming the first female president of the National Association of Professional Surplus Lines Offices (NAPSLO), now the Wholesale & Specialty Insurance Association
maintaining excellent relations with all colleagues
Challenges surmounted by 2023’s Elite Women
Throughout their careers, one common denominator with IBA’s winners has been persevering and succeeding in the face of adversity.
For Barr, that has meant transitioning from sales to operations. “It was unfamiliar territory for me after being in a client-facing role for so long,” she says. “But I was able to leverage my sales background and passion for clients in the new position.” This self-development was an ongoing process.
Barr adds, “I routinely held customer-specific stewardship and focus meetings aimed at deeply understanding client needs, so we could continue to provide innovative and superior solutions for the industry.”
For Nabell, persevering has meant juggling family and career commitments, even though there has been some testing periods.
“One of my strong suits is multitasking,” she says. “But sometimes there are just more balls in the air than you can conceivably catch – and those days can be really tough. When I look at my career, I’m really glad that I was given all these opportunities because I feel like I’ve had it all… I have a career that I love and kids who are doing great in life, and I’m very proud of that. So, I think overall it’s worked out.”
Meanwhile, for Caviston, persevering has meant progressing in an overwhelmingly male-dominated client-facing role.
“I saw it as a very male-dominated industry, so I made a number of decisions which got me a seat at the table and led to a number of opportunities, not only in business and positions that I earned, but also in industry associations.”
And she adds, “I was the first woman president of NAPSLO. I was pretty young at the time. Since that time, there have been seven or eight women presidents. I’m still the first and only president to give birth while in office.”
“One of my strong suits is multitasking. But sometimes there are just more balls in the air than you can conceivably catch – and those days can be really tough”
Cheryl NabellWade Associates
Future is bright for women leaders in insurance
Barr says there are more opportunities than ever for women. Today, numerous fields can lead into insurance; remote or flexible roles often benefit working mothers; and the impending mass retirement – approximately 25,000 in claims alone over the next decade, she says – will free up opportunities.
“Unemployment in the US remains historically low, and the insurance industry unemployment rate is even lower,” she says. “At the end of 2022, the industry had about 386,000 open jobs. That, combined with the wave of pending industry retirements, provides endless opportunities for career mobility and growth for women. Likewise, the post-COVID environment has created more opportunities for remote work, which is favorable to those balancing their career and family life.”
Nabell is similarly optimistic about the future of women leaders in insurance.
“There are so many opportunities and so many openings right now,” she says. “What’s more, the labor shortage has created opportunities for anybody who’s really looking to work hard and move ahead. I think we learned from the pandemic that we can be flexible in many more ways than we ever thought we could, and we can offer more opportunities to more men and women than ever could before – no matter their geographical location or their life situation.”
And Caviston adds, “I’m very optimistic. We’re very supportive of women. I’m on the steering committee for the Women’s Leadership Program at Amwins, and we have 15 high-potential women across the five divisions that we have. It’s a passion of mine to get more women in the C-suite.”
In conclusion, Elite Women judge Hart is similarly positive about the opportunities for women going forward.
She says, “One of the challenges is the industry continuing to promote diversity and inclusion, driving the brand and attracting diverse individuals to the industry. What IBA and other organizations are doing by bringing attention to women and insurance is certainly helping.”
“It’s a passion of mine to get more women in the C-suite”
Maureen CavistonAmwins
Allison Blum
Senior Program Manager
Zurich North America
Amanda Huang
President and Chief Operating Officer
Continental Underwriters
Amore D’Angelo
Chief Executive Officer
InsurancePM
Andrea “Cris” Dyer
President and CEO
HCP National Insurance Services
Angela Lee
Senior Vice President and Regional Claims Director
Marsh McLennan Agency
Anne Marie Towle
CEO, Global Captive Solutions
Hylant Group
Carol Murphy
Executive Vice President and Casualty Practice Leader
HUB International
Carrie A. Ryan
Chief Executive Officer
Hanson & Ryan
Catherine Mulligan
Enterprise Client Leader
Aon Reinsurance Solutions
Catherine Rudow
Global Head of Cyber Reinsurance
Everest Reinsurance Company
Charmaine Davis
Senior Vice President
Marsh
Chavonne Hudson
VP, Strategic Operations
Zurich North America
Claudia Timbo
Chief Executive Officer and President
CompanyVoice
Danette Beck
National Construction Practice Leader
USI Insurance Services
Dawn Miller
SVP, Internal Audit and Controls, TMHCC
Head of Internal Audit, Tokio Marine Group
Denise Campbell
Senior Vice President, Client Executive
President, National African American Insurance Association, New York Tri-State Chapter
Marsh
Denise Johnson
President and CEO
Big I Oklahoma
Elizabeth Gavino
Founder/Principal
Lewin & Gavino
Emily Loupee
Area Senior Vice President, Management Liability
Gallagher
Emily Maier
SVP, Head of Transactional Insurance
Woodruff Sawyer
Helaina Jolly
Senior Broker Relationship Leader
Munich Re
Jennifer Riley
Executive Vice President, Head of Digital Strategy and Operations
Chubb
Jenny Mackay
Senior Director of Digital Transformation
H.W. Kaufman Group
Juneen Belknap Kirk
Partner
PwC
Kailee Mastel
Chief Operating Officer
Insurance Center of Buffalo
Katie Davies
CEO/President, JEM Underwriting Managers
CEO, Technical Risk Underwriters
Kerry Crockett
Chief Executive Officer
Insurance Accounting and Systems Association
Kim Barnett
Senior Vice President, Chief Underwriting Officer of Treaty Reinsurance
Safety National Re
Leasha West
President
West Financial Group
Marilyn M. Blosser
President and Founder
Blosser Financial Services
Marya Propis
Executive Vice President, Retail Distribution
RT Specialty
Maura Freiwald
Head of Casualty
Munich Reinsurance America
Michele G. Centeno
Senior Vice President
Lockton
Ngozi Nnaji
Founder and Managing Partner
Ako Brokerage Services
Precious Norman Walton
President
Lovejoy Risk Management
Rachel Perry
Chief Innovation Officer, Commercial Risk North America
Aon
Telisa Yancy
President
American Family Group
Teresa Black
Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Chubb Surety
Chubb
Insurance Business invited industry professionals from across the US to nominate exceptional female leaders for the annual Elite Women list. Nominators were asked to provide details of their nominee’s achievements and initiatives over the past 12 months, including specific examples of their professional accomplishments and contributions to the industry as a whole.
To select the winners, the IBA team relied on the help of an independent and esteemed panel of judges that included Christine LaSala of the Beazley Group, Sabrina Hart of Munich Re Specialty Insurance, Nancy Mellard of CBIZ, and Susan Johnson of The Hartford Financial Services Group.
The judges and the IBA team reviewed all nominations, examining how each individual had made a meaningful contribution to the industry, to whittle down the list to the final 53 Elite Women. Self-voting and voting for relatives were prohibited to avoid conflicts of interest.
The Elite Women 2023 report is proudly supported by the Association of Professional Insurance Women and the Insurance Supper Club.
Meet the judges
Christine LaSala
Interim Chair of the Board of Directors
Beazley Group
Nancy Mellard
Executive Vice President and General Counsel, Benefits & Insurance Services Division
CBIZ
Sabrina Hart
President and CEO
Munich Re Specialty Insurance
Susan Johnson
Chief Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Officer
The Hartford Financial Services Group