Leap to winners | Leap to methodology
Queens of protection
Ladies are the powerhouses of America’s insurance coverage trade, numbering 1.7 million and comprising 54.9 p.c of the overall workforce.
Nonetheless, this dominance doesn’t lengthen into management roles, which is mirrored in Insurance coverage Enterprise America’s Elite Ladies 2025 survey as 64 p.c of respondents really feel there’s a lack of ladies leaders within the trade.
Information from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) confirms that ladies are the vast majority of the workforce, other than these in C-suite positions the place they quantity solely 22 p.c.
Information from 2010 to 2023 additionally reveals that ladies have made up the vast majority of professionals in roles equivalent to claims adjusters, appraisers, examiners, claims/coverage processing clerks and underwriters. It differs for gross sales brokers, the place ladies haven’t at all times been within the majority however have by no means dropped beneath 45.2 p.c of the overall.
These historic traits make the achievements of IBA’s Elite Ladies 2025 much more spectacular for navigating bias and structural boundaries to develop into profitable leaders and executives.
The winners earned their place after their achievements and initiatives over the previous 12 months have been analyzed by an esteemed judging panel that included:
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Jessica Hanson Hanna, American Property Casualty Insurance coverage Affiliation
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Nancy Mellard, Affiliation of Skilled Insurance coverage Ladies
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Jenna Kirkpatrick Howard, Lockton
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Joi Blume, GenStar Insurance coverage Companies
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Kathy Quintana, HUB Worldwide
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Jennifer Sharkey, Gallagher
Blume says, “Research present that when ladies are on the desk and in decision-making positions, the group fares higher total, particularly so far as financially and with so a lot of our pale, male, and rancid colleagues growing older out of the trade and retiring, it is a pivotal time.”
One other factor that stood out for Blume was how the Elite Ladies’s affect goes past their office.
“The group was proficient, and so they all appear to be excessive producers inside their organizations. We additionally noticed a whole lot of issues like group involvement, volunteerism and people who find themselves effectively revered, not solely within the trade however of their communities,” she says.
For Mellard, what’s spectacular was the Elite Ladies’s dedication to champion others.
“They weren’t targeted solely on their day-to-day job. With most of them, there was a reference to caring for the crew and anticipating others to advance.”
She additionally underlines the largest power wanted to reach the insurance coverage trade.
“Indubitably, it’s empathy and that interprets to emotional intelligence. It lets you perceive clients and crew members higher.”
Mindsets of the USA’s ladies leaders in insurance coverage
Alliant Insurance coverage Service’s Kirsten Handel attributes her success to being robust. After starting her profession in underwriting, she moved on to the actuarial sector and is now shopper going through.
“Insurance coverage is all I’ve ever performed, and I grew up by the ranks, and it hasn’t been simple,” says the senior vp. “There are at all times new issues to study, however the core fundamentals stay the identical, so being robust helps you get by. I used to be by no means the neatest, however I labored arduous to study, perceive, and adapt along with preserving my relationships and constructing new ones.”
“Rising a e book of enterprise or working a crew daily is like being a firefighter as a result of shopper requests are available in, or they’ve a loss and your crew wants assist. It’s a really high-paced surroundings and it’s important to keep on prime of it”
Kristen HandelAlliant Insurance coverage Companies
Being resilient can also be one thing Rekha Skantharaja advocates. The CEO of Tangram Insurance coverage refuses to be put in a field and needs to indicate the trade that ladies leaders are greater than token figures. If requested to an tackle a topic like work-life stability or self-care, she refuses.
“Each time I’m requested to provide a keynote or communicate on a panel round these subjects, I politely decline to take part,” Skantharaja says. “My male CEO counterparts aren’t being requested to debate this stuff. They’re busy exposing their views on M&A and valuation traits, tech transformation and large information, the artwork of negotiation, and constructing the subsequent $1-billion unicorn.”
An enormous a part of Skantharaja’s ethos is being brave as a pacesetter.
She says, “We’re at an inflection level for ladies on this trade and it’s time to lean deeply into the areas which have sometimes been guarded by the lads.”
Adaptability, resilience, and a client-focused mindset have all been key to enabling Catherine Lyle’s rise within the trade.
“My aim is to make the claims course of as environment friendly and supportive as potential. Staying modern isn’t non-compulsory – it’s important to offer worth to our shoppers and reply successfully to rising threats”
Catherine LyleTokio Marine HCC – Cyber & Skilled Strains Group
Now, as senior vp, and head of cyber claims and incident response at Tokio Marine HCC, she spreads that power amongst youthful colleagues.
“Fortunately, there are numerous wonderful ladies inside or coming into the trade, and that is one thing I’m obsessed with,” Lyle says. “I consider in creating alternatives and providing steering to assist them navigate their careers. Mentorship is essential for constructing confidence, offering perspective, and empowering the subsequent technology of leaders.”
Echoing the necessity to enable others to showcase their abilities underlines the management maturity of Danger Placement Companies’ (RPS) Sharon Novasel.
“I oversee our summer time interns and intention to broaden their views on the various profession alternatives throughout the insurance coverage trade”
Sharon NovaselDanger Placement Companies
“As a supervisor, I’ve discovered that empowering crew members to take possession of their obligations and roles has been key to our division’s success in attaining our objectives,” she explains.
Being robust and profitable additionally includes understanding the necessity for private progress. Refining her management type is one thing Christine Schneider, senior vp casualty claims at Arch Capital, locations a premium on.
She says, “I’m conscious of my weaknesses and know after I have to seek the advice of with colleagues and collaborate with the intention to effectively discover a decision or execute on a aim.”
Consciousness and understanding tips on how to get essentially the most from themselves is a high quality shared among the many Elite Ladies 2025.
“My strongest qualities are my potential to strategically drawback resolve, analyze conditions, weigh dangers, and make considerate selections which can be in the most effective pursuits of our shopper and/or the group,” provides Schneider.
Ryan Specialty’s Brenda Austenfeld has carved out a status by setting requirements.
“My aim is for our crew to be the easiest, not simply in numbers or metrics, however in the best way we conduct ourselves and the extent of excellence we set.”
It’s been below a 12 months since Stephanie Peters took on the position of vp of shopper relations at RPS.
“All ladies in management ought to embrace being a job mannequin for feminine friends”
Stephanie PetersDanger Placement Companies
She has handled the problem of elevated duty of managing a crew and has launched new methods of working.
“I used to be beforehand ready the place I used to be comfy and stepped into a job that required me to adapt and embrace change. I’m pleased with how I dealt with the transition, and I’m significantly pleased with the assist of my crew and the way the crew embraced the adjustments.”
Resilience and dedication mark out the Elite Ladies 2025, as they’ve needed to come by difficult circumstances immediately or battle structural bias.
IBA’s survey information reveals that 33 p.c of respondents consider they might have achieved extra seniority in the event that they weren’t feminine.
Sharon Novasel relishes working at RPS, the place there’s a robust give attention to variety and fairness within the office, as she’s skilled the opposite aspect. Her profession started throughout a time when ladies seldom occupied high-level positions.
She says, “I usually wasn’t taken critically, generally mistaken for the supervisor’s assistant, and was continuously dismissed and talked over in conferences. For instance, when interviewing an company for an appointment, I used to be continuously requested when my supervisor would make the choice, though the choice was mine to make.”
Equally, Lyle can sympathize with not being proven the identical respect as her male counterparts.
“I’d like to say that there have been no roadblocks and that everybody was supportive of a girl with a voice. Nonetheless, that was not the trail,” she says. “One of many largest challenges has been overcoming unconscious biases. Early in my profession, I needed to work arduous to make sure my voice was heard in rooms the place ladies have been underrepresented. These challenges additionally fueled my drive to excel and create pathways for different ladies within the trade.”
IBA Elite Ladies 2025 decide Mellard acknowledges there are fewer boundaries for ladies than there have been traditionally. To proceed this development, she feels ladies should be extra emphatic about their skills.
Mellard says, “There’s higher acceptance of broader ability units that ladies carry, however boundaries nonetheless exist as a result of too usually corporations are rewarding those that they know versus who you might be. I don’t suppose at present it’s since you’re a girl versus a white man, however I do suppose the barrier is ladies have to do a greater job to deliberately and confidently clarify their array of abilities.”
One other of 2025’s Elite Ladies resonates with Nadia Hoyte, cyber nationwide apply chief at USI Insurance coverage Companies. She recollects being “second and third guessed” after which attaching a which means to that which chipped away at her confidence, earlier than she understood the place these views come from.
IBA decide Blume is happy to see how ladies leaders are breaking by and emphasizes how vital it’s to maintain the momentum.
She provides, “We’re actually at a crossroads, and I feel we’d like extra of our white male counterparts to develop into allies and take a real curiosity in our success, to see us not simply as competitors, however an equally highly effective pressure.”
Ladies leaders in insurance coverage act as mentors
What is obvious from the Elite Ladies cohort is how keen and in a position they’re to information others. They create time of their schedules to make sure they’ll assist, educate and upskill the subsequent technology of insurance coverage professionals, significantly youthful ladies.
Alliant’s Handel has seen spectacular progress figures in her area over the previous 12 months, which wouldn’t have occurred with out her crew.
“I’m very proud to be part of hiring and bringing on some new crew members but in addition mentoring a couple of of them,” she says. “I’ve those who have helped me from day one, and I nonetheless communicate with them going again 27 years. I need to be that for the longer term and pay that ahead. The relationships I’ve constructed and the belief I’ve garnered with a few of our newer folks, along with sustaining my shoppers, might be the factor I’m most pleased with.”
The recognition of video conferencing has additionally strengthened Handel’s impression.
“It’s truly expanded who you may study from and who you may mentor since you’re not simply with the folks inside your workplace. I’m working with folks in Florida, Atlanta, California, Boston, and assembly all these those who I by no means actually would have labored with intently.”
Lyle is one other who’s obsessed with being there for the “many wonderful ladies” coming into the trade.
“I consider in creating alternatives and providing steering to assist them navigate their careers. Mentorship is essential for constructing confidence, offering perspective, and empowering the subsequent technology of leaders,” she says.
One other who’s energetic in ushering the subsequent technology by is Novasel.
She says, “As a mentor to many ladies in entry-level positions, I supply steering and encourage them to problem themselves, constructing their confidence and assertiveness, and fostering an equal enjoying area for everybody.”
Legacy of 2025’s Elite Ladies
One other defining mark of this 12 months’s cohort is leaving a long-lasting impression. Regardless of being a minority within the C-suite, the winners are capable of implement methods that have an effect on not solely their organizations however the wider insurance coverage trade.
For Skantharaja, it’s instilling a tradition of feat.
“My strategy to my profession and my life is to be grateful however at all times somewhat stressed. It’s best to go away issues higher than you discovered them and lift the bar,” she says.
Danger Placement Companies’ Karen McCarthy-Hawn promotes the should be guided by “an moral or ethical compass”.
The declare advocacy supervisor does this by making a collegial tradition.
“A lot of the obstacles might be overcome with collaboration and a willingness to implement the change wanted to take away the boundaries to success,” she says. “Once I current any obstacles found within the claims or techniques work product, I at all times anticipate to be an energetic participant in serving to discover options or to offer coaching to vary future outcomes.”
Regardless of developments in crew constructing, together with tech instruments and AI, there may be nonetheless a have to roll up the sleeves and work arduous. Handel resides proof and credit her success to by no means shedding sight of that.
She feedback, “Grit remains to be vital. I don’t suppose there’s any magic capsule or technique that takes that away. You continue to should work arduous and stick with it.”
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Mosaic Insurance coverage
