Heather Peirano (pictured), managing director at Piranha Insurance in Queensland’s Rockhampton, believes the insurance industry has a strong future because of the “confident” young women rising through the ranks.
“I believe the insurance industry will be in good hands with the young, female talent coming through,” she said. “I believe back, 30-odd years ago, there just wasn’t enough women, it was a male profession. These days you go to events and there are so many confident young women, which is lovely to see. To me, it is a positive thing to see, they are well respected, and you have many women that are in higher positions.”
It’s a far cry from when Peirano first joined the industry decades ago, when women were often expected to carry out administrative duties in the “back office” instead of being at the forefront of the business. But as time went on and her confidence built, so too did her career.
“Back 30-odd years ago, it was an industry that didn’t really know what to do with women. We were more sort of considered back office type workers – to go out and attend events was a challenge back in those days. You really had to be a little bit forward to survive,” she said.
“I am confident and therefore went forward and said, ‘this is who I am, this is where we come from, we can do this insurance for you, we’re local people’ and then when [our brokerage] became a part of the Steadfast group, Peter [her husband and the company’s founder] wasn’t interested in attending what we now call Townhall meetings, so I started to attend them. I’ve always been passionate to attend meetings and be on boards and make a difference, where possible.”
While Peirano says she has never experienced sexual discrimination or felt she was discriminated against in the insurance sector, she admits that it’s nice to see more young women coming forward and feeling like the industry is a place with real opportunities for them.
“It’s so nice to see women with so much confidence these days and younger women as well,” she continued. “The women that I am involved with on the boards that I’m on are all confident ladies – confident in the fact that they’re doing something for the benefit of either their community or profession.”
Now, she’s heading a brokerage that is dominated – unintentionally – by women. With a total of nine employees, only two of them are male.
“We used to have three with one young fellow and sometimes it just doesn’t click - it just doesn’t work so you’re better off to say, ‘no, this isn’t for me so I’m going to move on’,” she explained. “The young male tended to be more involved in his football than the work. Now we have a young woman from school, she’s been with us for 18-months. We also have four senior women and they will look after the rural insurance, the basic liability, the SMEs – we get everything across the board in regional Queensland.”
Women, she says, are “very driven”, want to be successful and “don’t like failure” but admits that another young man could enter the office and be totally different to the football-loving former employee.
“It’s a passion – it really is,” she said. “But if you have a passion for something, you do it successfully and you do it with the enthusiasm that’s required. It is an incredible profession. For us, when we have a cyclone, to be able to assist these people to get their lives back on track – it’s a nice feeling at the end of the day.”
